성경 주석서

The sabbath insituted and blessed, Genesis 2:2-3. A rehearsal of the creation; and,

(1.) Of vegetables, Genesis 2:4-5. The earth watered, Genesis 2:6.

(2.) Of man, Genesis 2:7. His habitation, Genesis 2:8-9. Trees for his delight and food; as also the tree of life and knowledge, Genesis 2:9. Its pleasant situation and riches, Genesis 2:10-14. Man’s employment, Genesis 2:15. Every tree given him but that of knowledge, Genesis 2:16. This denied on pain of death, Genesis 2:17. A purpose to create the woman, and the reason thereof, Genesis 2:18. Beasts and fowls named by Adam, Genesis 2:19-20. The woman made of Adam’s rib, presented to him, Genesis 2:21-22, and owned by him, Genesis 2:23. Marriage ordained, Genesis 2:24. Their state whilst innocent, Genesis 2:25.

All the creatures in heaven and earth are called their

hosts, for their multitude, variety, order, power, and subjection to the Lord of hosts. Particularly the host of heaven in Scripture (which is its own best interpreter) signifies both the stars, as Deu 4:19, Deu 17:3, Isaiah 34:4; and the angels, as 1 Kings 22:19 2 Chronicles 18:18 Luke 2:13; who from these words appear to have been created within the compass of the first six days, which also is probable from Colossians 1:16-17. But it is no wonder that the Scripture saith so little concerning angels, because it was written for the use of men, not of angels; and God would hereby take us off from curious and impertinent speculations, and teach us to employ our thoughts about necessary and useful things.

God ended his work, or rather had ended or

finished, for so the Hebrew word may be rendered, as all the learned know, and so it must be rendered, else it doth not agree with the former chapter, which expressly saith that all these works were done within six days.

He rested, not for his own need and refreshment, for he

is never weary, Isaiah 40:28; but for our example and instruction, that we might keep that day as a day of religious rest.

God blessed the seventh day, by conferring special honours and privileges upon it above all other days, that it should be a day of solemn rest and rejoicing and celebration of God and his works, and a day of God’s bestowing singular and the best blessings upon his servants and worshippers. He separated it from common use and worldly employments, and consecrated it to the worship of God, that it should be accounted a holy day, and spent in holy works and solemn exercises of religion. Some conceive that the sabbath was not actually blessed and sanctified at and from this time, but only in the days of Moses, which they pretend to be here related by way of anticipation. But this opinion hath no foundation in the text or context, but rather is confuted from them; for as soon as the sacred penman had said that God had

ended his work and rested, & c., he adds immediately in words of the same tense, that God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. And if we compare this place with Exodus 20:8-11, we shall find that Moses there speaks of God’s blessing and sanctifying of the sabbath, not as an action then first done, but as that which God had done formerly upon the creation of the world, to the end that men might celebrate the praises of God for that glorious work, which as it was agreeable to the state of innocency, so was it no less proper and necessary a duty for the first ages of the world after the fall, than it was for the days of Moses, and for the succeeding generations. Because he would have the memory of that glorious work of creation, from which he then rested, preserved through all generations.

Which God created and made; either,

1. Created in making, i.e. made by way of creation; or rather,

2. Created out of nothing, and afterwards out of that created matter

made or formed divers things, as the beasts out of the earth, the fishes out of the water. He useth these two words possibly to show that God’s wisdom, power, and goodness was manifest, not only in that which he brought out of mere nothing, but also in those things which he wrought out of matter altogether unfit for so great works.

i.e. These things mentioned in Ge 1 are a true and full relation of their generations, i.e. of their original or beginnings.

In the day; not strictly so called, but largely taken for the time, as it is Genesis 2:17 Ruth 4:5 Luke 19:42 2 Corinthians 6:2.

Before it was in the earth, i.e. when as yet there were no plants, nor so much as seeds of them, there.

Before it grew, to wit, out of the earth, as afterwards they did by God’s appointment.

The two great means of the growth of plants and herbs, viz. rain from heaven, and the labour of man, were both lacking, to show that they were now brought forth by God’s almighty power and word.

There went up, from time to time, by God’s appointment, a vapour, or cloud, which going up into the air, was turned into rain, and fell down again to the earth from whence it arose; whereby the earth was softened, and disposed both to the nourishment of those plants or trees that were created, and to the production of new plants in a natural and ordinary way. But these words may be otherwise understood, the copulative and, here rendered but, being put for the disjunctive

or, as it is Exodus 21:15, Exodus 21:17, Job 6:22, Job 8:3, and in other places. Or, the negative particle not may be understood out of the foregoing clause, as it is usual in the Hebrew language, as Psalm 1:5, Psalm 9:17, Psalm 44:19, Psalm 50:8, Isaiah 28:27-28. And so these words may be joined with the foregoing, and both translated in this manner,

There was no rain, nor a man to till the ground, or (or

nor, for both come to one thing) so much as

a mist which went up from the earth, and watered (as afterwards was usual and natural) the whole face of the ground.

Into his nostrils, and by that door into the head and whole man. This is an emphatical phrase, sufficiently implying that the soul of man was of a quite differing nature and higher extraction and original than the souls of beasts, which together with their bodies are said to be brought forth by the earth, Genesis 1:24.

The breath of life, Heb. of lives; either to show the continuance of this breath or soul, both in this life and in the life to come; or to note the various degrees or kinds of life which this one breath worketh in us; the life of plants, in growth and nourishment; the life of beasts, in sense and motion; and the life of a man, in reason and understanding.

Man, who before this was but a dull lump of clay, or a comely statue,

became a living soul, i.e. a living man: the soul being oft put for the whole man, as Genesis 12:5, Genesis 12:13, Genesis 46:15 Genesis 46:18, 1 Peter 3:20, &c.

He had planted, viz. on the third day, when he made the plants and trees to grow out of the ground, a place of the choicest plants and fruits, most beautiful and pleasant.

Eastward, from the place where Moses writ, and the Israelites afterwards dwelt.

Eden here is the name of a place, not that Eden near Damascus in Syria, of which see Amos 1:5; but another Eden in Mesopotamia or Chaldea, of which see Genesis 4:16 2 Kings 19:12 Isaiah 37:12 Ezekiel 27:23. There are many and tedious disputes about the place of this Paradise; of which he that listeth may see my Latin Synopsis. It may suffice to know that which is evident, that it was in or near to Mesopotamia, in the confluence of Euphrates and Tigris.

There he put the man whom he had formed, to wit, in another place.