Genesis 2:8

2:8-14 The place fixed upon for Adam to dwell in, was not a palace, but a garden. The better we take up with plain things, and the less we seek things to gratify pride and luxury, the nearer we approach to innocency. Nature is content with a little, and that which is most natural; grace with less; but lust craves every thing, and is content with nothing. No delights can be satisfying to the soul, but those which God himself has provided and appointed for it. Eden signifies delight and pleasure. Wherever it was, it had all desirable conveniences, without any inconvenience, though no other house or garden on earth ever was so. It was adorned with every tree pleasant to the sight, and enriched with every tree that yielded fruit grateful to the taste and good for food. God, as a tender Father, desired not only Adam's profit, but his pleasure; for there is pleasure with innocency, nay there is true pleasure only in innocency. When Providence puts us in a place of plenty and pleasure, we ought to serve God with gladness of heart in the good things he gives us. Eden had two trees peculiar to itself. 1. There was the tree of life in the midst of the garden. Of this man might eat and live. Christ is now to us the Tree of life, Re 2:7; 22:2; and the Bread of life, Joh 6:48,51. 2. There was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so called because there was a positive revelation of the will of God about this tree, so that by it man might know moral good and evil. What is good?

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden,.... Or "had planted" (m), for this was not now done after the formation of man, but before; and so the word translated "eastward" may be rendered, as it is by some, "before" (n): for the plain meaning is, that God had planted a garden before he made man, even on the third day, when all herbs, and plants, and trees were produced out of the earth.

Genesis 2:8 . The Lord God planted — Or, had planted, namely, on the third day, when he created the fruit-tree yielding fruit; a garden — A place peculiarly pleasant, a paradise, separated, it seems, from the rest of the earth, and enclosed, but in what way, we are not informed; eastward — From the place where Moses wrote, and from the place where the Israelites afterward dwelt. In Eden — Although the word eden signifies delight and pleasure; and undoubtedly the situation of the garden was extremely delightful, yet it is here the name of a place, not that mentioned, Amos 1:5 , which was in Syria, but another Eden in Mesopotamia, spoken of Genesis 4:16 , and 2 Kings 19:12 , in the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates. There he put the man — Not in a sumptuous palace or house of any kind, but in the open air. For as clothes came in with sin, so did houses. Our first parents in paradise needed them not. “The heaven was the roof of Adam’s house,” says Henry, “and never was any roof so curiously ceiled and painted. The earth was his floor, and never was any floor so richly inlaid: the shadow of the trees was his retirement, and never were any rooms so finely hung. Solomon’s, in all their glory, were not arrayed like them.”

(8) The Lord God planted a garden. —The order followed in the text, namely, man first and the garden afterwards, is not that of chronology, but of precedence. In Genesis 2:15 we find that the garden was ready as soon as man needed a home. It was a separate plot of ground, fenced off from the rest of Eden, and planted with trees and herbs that were of choicer kinds, more fit for food, and more beautiful in foliage and blossom, than elsewhere. The word Paradise, usually applied to it, is a Persian name for an enclosed park, such as the kings of Persia used for hunting. Eastward in Eden.—This does not mean in the eastern portion of Eden, but that Eden itself was to the east of the regions known to the Israelites. The name “Eden,” that is, pleasure-ground, occurs elsewhere, but for regions not identical with that in which the paradise was situated (2Kings 19:12; Isaiah 37:12; Isaiah 51:3; Ezekiel 27:23; Amos 1:5). Of its site no certain conclusions have been established, and probably the flood so altered the conformation of the ground as to make the identification of the four rivers impossible. But there can be no doubt that an eastern district of Asia is meant, and that the details at the time the narrative was written were sufficient to indicate with sufficient clearness where and what the region was. The rendering of several versions in the beginning instead of eastward is untenable.

8–9. The Garden in Eden 8 . a garden ] More strictly “an enclosure.” LXX παράδεισον , Lat. paradisum , a word borrowed from the Persian, and meaning “a park-like enclosure.” Its use here has given rise to the Christian metaphorical use of the word “Paradise.” “The word is of Iranian origin. In Avesta it is pairi-daêza encircling wall’ ( Vend . iii. 18). It passed into Neo-Babylonian, Aramaic, post-Exilic Hebrew, Neo-Hebrew, Armenian, Persian, Kurdish, Greek, and Arabic as a word for a park or splendid garden. In the O.T. it is found in Nehemiah 2:8 , Song of Solomon 4:13 , Ecclesiastes 2:5 ” ( Encycl. Rel. and Eth . vol. ii. p. 705). eastward ] The point of view is not that of the Babylonian, but of the Israelite, who regarded the East, and, in particular, Babylonia, as the cradle of man’s earliest civilization. Notice here the quite general description of the site of the “garden.” For its more minute definition, see Genesis 2:10-15 . LXX κατὰ ἀνατολάς : Vulg. a principio . The Hebrew, when speaking or writing, is mentally facing East. “Eastward” is the same as “on the side fronting you.” in Eden ] Eden is not the name of the “garden,” but of the country or district in which Jehovah planted his “garden.” Eden in Hebrew means “delight,” or “happiness”; and the Israelite naturally associated this meaning of the word “Eden” with the dwelling place of the first man and woman, because this auspicious name seemed appropriate to the Garden of Jehovah.

Hence we find the Garden of God spoken of as the place of fertility, beauty, and delight, Isaiah 51:3 , Ezekiel 28:13 ; Ezekiel 31:8-9 ; Ezekiel 36:35 , Joel 2:3 . “In Eden”; so, rightly, LXX ἐν Ἐδέμ . The Lat. “voluptatis,” = “of pleasure,” represents a popular misapprehension, not recognizing it as a proper name. Assyriologists point out that the Assyrian word edinnu , meaning “a plain” or “steppe,” was applied to the Euphrates Valley. They suggest that the “garden” lay in this region. The Hebrew narrative, however, evidently contemplates a fruitful enclosure, not a plain: the name “Eden” is chosen because of its auspicious meaning in Hebrew, while the fact that in sound it reproduced the Babylonian designation of a remote Eastern, or Mesopotamian, region, made it appear all the more appropriate.

He had planted, viz. on the third day, when he made the plants and trees to grow out of the ground, a place of the choicest plants and fruits, most beautiful and pleasant. Eastward, from the place where Moses writ, and the Israelites afterwards dwelt. Eden here is the name of a place, not that Eden near Damascus in Syria, of which see Amos 1:5 ; but another Eden in Mesopotamia or Chaldea, of which see Genesis 4:16 2 Kings 19:12 Isaiah 37:12 Ezekiel 27:23 . There are many and tedious disputes about the place of this Paradise; of which he that listeth may see my Latin Synopsis. It may suffice to know that which is evident, that it was in or near to Mesopotamia, in the confluence of Euphrates and Tigris. There he put the man whom he had formed, to wit, in another place.

Ge 8-17. The Garden of Eden. 8. Eden—was probably a very extensive region in Mesopotamia, distinguished for its natural beauty and the richness and variety of its produce. Hence its name, signifying "pleasantness." God planted a garden eastward, an extensive park, a paradise, in which the man was put to be trained under the paternal care of his Maker to piety and usefulness.

Verse 8. - In accordance with a well-known characteristic of Hebrew composition, the writer, having carried his subject forward to a convenient place of rest, now reverts to a point of time in the six days antecedent to man's appearance on the earth. In anticipation of his arrival, it was needful that a suitable abode should be prepared for his reception. Accordingly, having already mentioned the creation of plants, trees, and flowers, the narrative proceeds to describe the construction of Adam's early home. And the Lord God (Jehovah Elohim) planted - i.e. specially prepared - a garden ( gan , a place protected by a fence, from ganan , to cover; hence a garden: cf. Deuteronomy 2:10 ; 1 Kings 21:2 ; Isaiah 51:3 ; LXX., παράδεισος ; Vulgate, paradisus ; whence English, paradise, Luke 23:43 ) eastward ( mekedem , literally, from the front quarter, not from the beginning, - ἀπο ἀρχῆς , Aquila; ἐν πρῶτοις , Theodotion; a principio , Vulgate, - but in the region lying towards the east of Palestine - LXX., κατ ἀνατολὰς ) in (not of, as Murphy, who renders "in the east of Eden") Eden (delight; Greek, ἡδονή : cf. Hedenesh, or Heden, the birthplace of Zoroaster - Kalisch). The word is not merely descriptive of the beauty and fertility of the garden ( paradisus voluptatis , Vulg., cf. παράδεισος της τρυφης , LXX. ( Joel 2:3 ).

On the ground of possessing similar qualities, other districts and places were subsequently termed Edens: cf. 2 Kings 19:12 ; Isaiah 37:12 ; Isaiah 51:3 ; Ezekiel 27:23 ; Amos 1:5 ), but likewise indicates its locality, which is afterwards more exactly defined (vers. 10, 14). In the mean time it is simply noted that, this enchanting paradise having been specially prepared by Jehovah, there he put the man (Adam) whom he had formed. Genesis 2:8