Genesis 2:8

2:8 The Lord God planted an orchard ¹  in the east, ²  in Eden; ³  and there he placed the man he had formed. ⁴ 

Genesis 2:16

2:16 Then the Lord God commanded ⁵  the man, “You may freely eat ⁶  fruit ⁷  from every tree of the orchard,

Genesis 24:21

24:21 Silently the man watched her with interest to determine ⁸  if the Lord had made his journey successful ⁹  or not.

Genesis 24:29

24:29 (Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban.) ¹⁰  Laban rushed out to meet the man at the spring.

Genesis 26:11

26:11 So Abimelech commanded all the people, “Whoever touches ¹¹  this man or his wife will surely be put to death.” ¹² 

Genesis 27:11

27:11 “But Esau my brother is a hairy man,” Jacob protested to his mother Rebekah, “and I have smooth skin! ¹³ 

Genesis 42:11

42:11 We are all the sons of one man; we are honest men! Your servants are not spies.”

Genesis 43:6

43:6 Israel said, “Why did you bring this trouble ¹⁴  on me by telling ¹⁵  the man you had one more brother?”

Genesis 44:13

44:13 They all tore their clothes! Then each man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city.

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¹ tn Traditionally “garden,” but the subsequent description of this “garden” makes it clear that it is an orchard of fruit trees.

sn The Lord God planted an orchard. Nothing is said of how the creation of this orchard took place. A harmonization with chap. 1 might lead to the conclusion that it was by decree, prior to the creation of human life. But the narrative sequence here in chap. 2 suggests the creation of the garden followed the creation of the man. Note also the past perfect use of the perfect in the relative clause in the following verse.

² tn Heb “from the east” or “off east.”

sn One would assume this is east from the perspective of the land of Israel, particularly since the rivers in the area are identified as the rivers in those eastern regions.

³ sn The name Eden (עֵדֶן, ’eden) means “pleasure” in Hebrew.

⁴ tn The perfect verbal form here requires the past perfect translation since it describes an event that preceded the event described in the main clause.

⁵ sn This is the first time in the Bible that the verb tsavah (צָוָה, “to command”) appears. Whatever the man had to do in the garden, the main focus of the narrative is on keeping God’s commandments. God created humans with the capacity to obey him and then tested them with commands.

⁶ tn The imperfect verb form probably carries the nuance of permission (“you may eat”) since the man is not being commanded to eat from every tree. The accompanying infinitive absolute adds emphasis: “you may freely eat,” or “you may eat to your heart’s content.”

⁷ tn The word “fruit” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied as the direct object of the verb “eat.” Presumably the only part of the tree the man would eat would be its fruit (cf. 3:2).

⁸ tn Heb “to know.”

⁹ tn The Hebrew term צָלָה (tsalah), meaning “to make successful” in the Hiphil verbal stem, is a key term in the story (see vv. 40, 42, 56).

¹⁰ tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause introduces the audience to Laban, who will eventually play an important role in the unfolding story.

¹¹ tn Heb “strikes.” Here the verb has the nuance “to harm in any way.” It would include assaulting the woman or killing the man.

¹² tn The use of the infinitive absolute before the imperfect makes the construction emphatic.

¹³ tn Heb “And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, ‘Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, but I am a smooth [skinned] man.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁴ tn The verb may even have a moral connotation here, “Why did you do evil to me?”

¹⁵ tn The infinitive construct here explains how they brought trouble on Jacob.