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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 2:4 - 2:7
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The creation of Adam
v. 4. These are 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. The author, having given a short account of the creation, now proceeds to narrate some facts pertaining to it in greater detail. His heading is: This is the further history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, at the time when Jehovah God made earth and heavens. The earth is mentioned first in this case, as the scene of the events about to be related.
v. 5. And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. This is a description of the earth before Paradise was made. At that time the plants of the field had not yet started to grow, to sprout and to bud; they had not yet matured. There had, till then, been no rain on earth, and the tilling of the soil had not yet begun.
v. 6. But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. This is the manner in which God provided moisture for the vegetation of the earth at that time, not by means of rain, but by a heavy fog, which arose from the earth and soaked the entire surface of the soil. Having described the earth as the home of man and as the place of his later labors, the author relates the creation of man itself.
v. 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. This is one distinction of man: Instead of merely being called into being by a word of God's almighty power, he was formed, as it were, by the finger of God, the material being an earth-clod, dust of the soil. This being done, God blew the breath of life into the figure which He had formed. As the dust, by virtue of the creative omnipotence, formed the figure of a man, it was charged with the living breath and thus became a living soul, named after the more important part of which he consists. The Spirit of God has made us, and the breath of the Almighty has given us life, Job_33:4. This shows the superiority of man over irrational brutes, his being endowed with an immortal soul as well as his being formed in the image of God.