Chapter 2

The Creation of Man and Woman

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all atheir hosts.

2 By athe seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and bHe rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created 1and made.

4 1aThis is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in bthe day that the Lord God made earth and heaven.

5 aNow no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, bfor the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to 1cultivate the ground.

6 But a 1mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole 2surface of the ground.

7 Then the Lord God formed man of adust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and bman became a living 1being.

8 The Lord God planted a agarden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.

9 Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow aevery tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; bthe tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 Now a ariver 1flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four 2rivers.

11 The name of the first is Pishon; it 1flows around the whole land of aHavilah, where there is gold.

12 The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there.

13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it 1flows around the whole land of Cush.

14 The name of the third river is 1aTigris; it 2flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the 3bEuphrates.

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

16 The Lord God acommanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;

17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not 1eat, for in the day that you eat from it ayou will surely die.”

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; aI will make him a helper 1suitable for him.”

19 aOut of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the 1sky, and bbrought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the 1sky, and to every beast of the field, but for 2Adam there was not found aa helper 3suitable for him.

21 So the Lord God caused a adeep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.

22 The Lord God 1fashioned into a woman athe rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

23 The man said,

“aThis is now bone of my bones,

And flesh of my flesh;

1She shall be called 2Woman,

Because 1she was taken out of 3Man.”

24 aFor this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

25 aAnd the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.