Genesis 2

What happens: A second creation account begins at 2:4 with a different sequence and focus. YHWH God forms the human from dust, plants a garden in Eden with two named trees, places the human there to work and keep it, gives the command about the tree of knowledge, declares "not good" for the human to be alone, forms animals, and builds the woman from the human's side.

Key themes: The "generations" formula (2:4); YHWH God (combined divine name); formation from the ground — the wordplay between the human and the ground (adam / adamah); the garden as bounded space; the tree of knowledge and the tree of life; the command and its consequence ("dying you shall die"); naming as ordering; "one flesh."

Watch for: The divine name shifts to YHWH Elohim (2:4 onward); the different creation order from Chapter 1 (human before animals in 2:7, 19); the "not good" — the only negative assessment in creation; the deep sleep; "bone of my bones" as the first human speech.

Connection: The trees introduced here — knowledge and life — drive the narrative of Chapter 3. The relationship between the human and the ground becomes the basis for the curse in 3:17–19.

¹And were finished the skies and the land and all their host. ²And God finished on the seventh day his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. ³And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, for on it he rested from all his work which God created to make.

⁴These are the generations of the skies and the land when they were created, in the day YHWH Elohim made land and skies. ⁵And every shrub of the field not yet was on the land, and every herb of the field not yet sprouted, for YHWH Elohim had not caused rain upon the land, and a human there was not to work the ground. ⁶And a mist went up from the land and watered all the face of the ground. ⁷And YHWH Elohim formed the human, dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils breath of life, and the human became a living being.

⁸And YHWH Elohim planted a garden in Eden from east, and placed there the human whom he had formed. ⁹And YHWH Elohim caused to sprout from the ground every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, and the tree of the life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ¹⁰And a river going out from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four heads. ¹¹The name of the one is Pishon; it is the one going around all the land of Havilah, where the gold is. ¹²And the gold of that land is good; there is the bdellium and the stone shoham. ¹³And the name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one going around all the land of Cush. ¹⁴And the name of the third river is Hiddeqel; it is the one going east of Asshur. And the fourth river, that is Perat.

¹⁵And YHWH Elohim took the human and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. ¹⁶And YHWH Elohim commanded upon the human, saying, "From every tree of the garden eating you shall eat. ¹⁷But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it, for in the day of your eating from it dying you shall die."

¹⁸And YHWH Elohim said, "Not good the being of the human alone; I will make for him a helper as his counterpart." ¹⁹And YHWH Elohim formed from the ground every living thing of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the human to see what he would call to it; and all that the human called to each living being, that is its name. ²⁰And the human called names to all the livestock, and to the bird of the sky, and to every living thing of the field, but for the human he did not find a helper as his counterpart.

²¹And YHWH Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon the human, and he slept; and he took one of his sides/ribs, and closed flesh beneath it. ²²And YHWH Elohim built the side/rib which he had taken from the human into a woman, and brought her to the human. ²³And the human said, "This one, this time, bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh; to this one shall be called ishah (woman), for from ish (man) was this one taken." ²⁴Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and cling to his woman, and they shall become one flesh. ²⁵And they were both of them naked, the human and his woman, and they were not ashamed.