Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 2:8 - 2:14
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Garden of Eden
v. 8. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom He had formed. Although the entire work of creation was perfect, God chose to do still more for man by planting an enclosed garden, or park, commonly called Paradise, in Eden, a country toward the east. Into this covered and sheltered place the Lord put the man whom He had formed. That was to be his earthly home, a place of wonderful bliss, a fitting vestibule for the eternal home with its unequaled Sabbath rest.
v. 9. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This shows the manner in which the Lord prepared the garden. Jehovah God caused to sprout and grow out of the soil trees of every kind, pleasing to the eye and with fruit that was good for food, the agreeable thus being combined with that promoting health. But, above all, there was in the midst of the garden the tree of life, whose fruit would have given to man perfect health and strength always and thus prepared him for the perfection of eternal life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, placed there for the purpose of testing man; for by obedience to God's command concerning it Adam would retain his concreated righteousness and holiness and progress to the perfection of heavenly bliss, while by disobedience he would become guilty of sin with all its attendant harm.
v. 10. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. This great river thus had its beginning in the land of Eden, flowed through the entire length of the garden, and then divided into four beginnings, or heads of streams, which formed separate arms, or rivers.
v. 11. The name of the first is Pison; that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
v. 12. and the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx stone. Although the garden of Eden was long since destroyed and the entire contour of the country changed by the great Flood, it is probable that we may assume its location to have been in the central tableland of Asia or Armenia. There was the river Pison, the full-flowing, whose place may now have been taken by the Indus or by the Kur. It flowed through a sandy land, where gold in great quantity and of an excellent quality was found, also bdellium, an odoriferous and very costly gum, and onyx, or sardius, a precious stone which had the color of human finger-nails.
v. 13. And the name of the second river is Gihon; the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. This river has been identified most plausibly with the Ganges or with the Araxes, and the country which it watered with Kossaia, which extended in a westerly direction to the Caucasus.
v. 14. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. This seems to point quite definitely to the TigrIsaiah And the fourth river is Euphrates.