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Gen_2:18 And the LORD God said, [It is] not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
Ver. 18. And the Lord God said.] Had said; to wit, on the sixth day when he made man, and there was not a meet help found for him. Then God said, "It is not good," &c., and so created the woman by deliberate counsel, as before he had done the man. Only there it was in the plural, "Let us make," here, "I will make"; to show the unity of the essence of the Trinity of persons.
It is not good for man to be alone.] It is neither for his profit, nor his comfort. {Optimum solatium sodalitium.} The Hebrews, in their bigger Genesis, say, He who wanteth a wife, wanteth a help, a joy, a blessing, an expiation: R. Josua saith, he wants a name: R. Levi addeth, he wants life: R. Hija, the son of Gamri, saith, he is no perfect man who is unmarried: R. Iose saith, such a one is without a wall, without glory, riches, a crown, favour. {a}
I will make him a help meet for him.] Or, such another as himself, of the same form for perfection of nature, and for gifts inward and outward; one in whom he may see himself, and that may be to him as an alter-ego, a second self. {Eph_5:28} Such a one as may be a help to him - both for this life, (1.) by continual society and cohabitation; (2.) for procreation and education of children; - and for the life to come, (1.) as a remedy against sin; {1Co_7:2} (2.) as a companion in God’s service. {1Pe_3:7} Nazianzen {b} saith, that his mother was not only a meet help to his father in matters of piety, but also a doctress and a governess; and yet he was no baby, but an able minister of the gospel. Budaeus, that learned Frenchman, had a great help of his wife in points of learning; she would be as busy in his study as about her housewifery. Placilla, the Empress, was a singular help to her husband, Theodosius, in things both temporal and spiritual. And so was our King Edward III’s Queen, a lady of excellent virtue, the same that built Queen’s College in Oxford. She drew evenly, saith the historian, {c} with the king her husband in all the courses of honour that appertained to her side, and seemed a piece so just cut for him, as answered him rightly in every joint.
{a} åöõãïí êïêïí åõñïí áìåéíïí - Athenis in nuptiis dici solitun. Zenod. Proverb.
{b} ïõ óõíåñãïò ìïíïí áëëáêé áñ÷çãïò åãåíåôï - Naz. in Pat. Epitaph.
{c} Non tractat negligentius libros meos quam liberos. - Daniel’s Chron. fol. 262.