Stilling Waves Bible Genesis 2

Genesis 2

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Translation

World English Bible (WEB), a modern translation.

Before you read

Genesis 2 opens by completing the first account: God rests on the seventh day and makes it holy. From verse 4 the story of creation is told again, with a different feel. Where chapter 1 is cosmic and ordered, this telling stays close to the ground. The LORD God forms a human from the dust, breathes life into him, plants a garden in Eden, and gives him work and a single limit. Seeing that the man's aloneness is not good, God brings him the animals to name and then forms the woman, a partner suited to him. Interpreters differ on how the two accounts fit together.

1The heavens, the earth, and all their vast array were finished.

2On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.

3God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.

4This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.

5No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground,

6but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole surface of the ground.

7The LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

8The LORD God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

9Out of the ground the LORD God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became the source of four rivers.

11The name of the first is Pishon: it flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also there.

13The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush.

14The name of the third river is Hiddekel. This is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

15The LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.

16The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;

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

18The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

19Out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature became its name.

20The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper comparable to him.

21The LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.

22The LORD God made a woman from the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

23The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.”

24Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.

25The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.

Meditate

Genesis 2 meditation and reflection

God breathes life into dust and plants a garden for the man to tend. Look at the work and people in your keeping. Can you receive them as gifts?

In the King James Version: Genesis 2:7

Read it slowly, then sit with the prompt. Free: stillingwaves.com/bible/genesis/2/
Scripture: World English Bible (public domain).Scripture: King James Version (1769 text), public domain outside the United Kingdom; in the United Kingdom under Crown patent.

Sit with this: a guided reflection

Picture the scene in verse 7: a handful of earth, and the breath of God close enough to be felt. You are both of these, dust and breath, ordinary and alive by gift. There is no shame in being made of soil. Then comes the first thing in all creation called not good, in verse 18: being alone. God's answer is not a lecture on self-sufficiency but companionship. And before any of that, God rests and blesses the day of rest. Do you allow yourself rest, or does it feel like something you must earn? Where are you lonely, and who might be lonely near you? What would it mean to let your own breathing today remind you whose you are? Breathe slowly for a few moments, and talk with God about rest and about the people he has placed beside you.

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