Genesis 2: 1-5 : My Own Translation and Notes
Genesis 2:1
The earth and the heavens were finished with their populations.
This is a summary formula, opening formula. While the word for hosts is here, often referring to the angels of heaven, the LXX uses the words “world of them”. Given the pattern from Chapter 1, the environment made and the population of that environment there may be a connection there between the earth and heavens and those who populate them.
Genesis 2:2
God finished on the seventh day his works and he rested on the seventh day from his works.
This is poetic in form. The verb is changed from the first phrase to the second phrase but there is a repetition of the ending phrase, thus giving emphasis on the actions, finishing and resting.
Genesis 2:3
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy and thus began to rest from all of his works he had begun.
Genesis 2:4
This is the generations of the heavens and earth when created in the day that that God made earth and heaven.
There are a couple of things strange about this verse. One is the use of the generation formula to talk about the heavens and earth. This formula is probably not meant to be a anthropomorphic generations of the heaven and earth but instead is supposed to draw attention to the formula as a key to finishing out a section and introducing the next. The niphal is the form used for created (BRA), giving a sense of passive but then the qal is used for God’s active making. Sort of using both passive and active verbs in the same sentence. The turning of heaven and earth/earth and heaven is probably phrases that way for euphony.
Genesis 2:5
And every plant of the field before it was on the earth and every herb of the field before The LORD God caused it to rain on the land and there was not a man to till the land.
The function of man to till the earth seems on par with the plants growing and rain. In a sense, the land its inhabitants are complete with man tilling the land.
And all together....
Genesis 2:1-5
The earth and the heavens were finished with their populations.
This is a summary formula, opening formula. While the word for hosts is here, often referring to the angels of heaven, the LXX uses the words “world of them”. Given the pattern from Chapter 1, the environment made and the population of that environment there may be a connection there between the earth and heavens and those who populate them.
Genesis 2:2
God finished on the seventh day his works and he rested on the seventh day from his works.
This is poetic in form. The verb is changed from the first phrase to the second phrase but there is a repetition of the ending phrase, thus giving emphasis on the actions, finishing and resting.
Genesis 2:3
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy and thus began to rest from all of his works he had begun.
Genesis 2:4
This is the generations of the heavens and earth when created in the day that that God made earth and heaven.
There are a couple of things strange about this verse. One is the use of the generation formula to talk about the heavens and earth. This formula is probably not meant to be a anthropomorphic generations of the heaven and earth but instead is supposed to draw attention to the formula as a key to finishing out a section and introducing the next. The niphal is the form used for created (BRA), giving a sense of passive but then the qal is used for God’s active making. Sort of using both passive and active verbs in the same sentence. The turning of heaven and earth/earth and heaven is probably phrases that way for euphony.
Genesis 2:5
And every plant of the field before it was on the earth and every herb of the field before The LORD God caused it to rain on the land and there was not a man to till the land.
The function of man to till the earth seems on par with the plants growing and rain. In a sense, the land its inhabitants are complete with man tilling the land.
And all together....
Genesis 2:1-5
The earth and the heavens were finished with their populations. God finished on the seventh day his works and he rested on the seventh day from his works. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy and thus began to rest from all of his works he had begun. This is the generations of the heavens and earth when created in the day that that God made earth and heaven. And every plant of the field before it was on the earth and every herb of the field before The LORD God caused it to rain on the land and there was not a man to till the land.
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