Genesis 2:11

The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

1. The first river branching off from the river flowing into the garden was called Pison.
2. The river Pison defined or bounded the land of Havilah.
3. There was gold in the land of Havilah.

Genesis 2:10

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

1. A river flowed east from Eden to the garden in which the man was placed.
2. The river provided water for the plants in the garden (probably for the man and animals as well).
3. After flowing to the garden the river split into 4 branches.

Genesis 2:9

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.

1. The LORD God caused trees to grow on the earth and in the garden.
2. The LORD God created 2 unusual trees in the garden - the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
3. Two purposes of trees are: 1) they are pleasant to look at; 2) they provide food.

Genesis 2:8

And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

1. God planted a garden in a place called Eden.
2. God created the man (Adam) outside the garden, apparently west of Eden, unless the frame of reference is something else not mentioned.
3. God moved the man from where he was first created to the garden, eastward in Eden.
4. This verse raises a number of questions for me - 1) Why did God choose Eden for the garden? 2) Why didn't God just save himself the trouble of moving Adam by creating him in Eden to begin with? 3) Why did God have to plant a special garden for the man? Why not just let him stay where he was first created? 4) How did God move the man?

Genesis 2:7

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.

1. God created man by first forming a lifeless human body, either by manually sculpting it from the moist dirt recently watered by the mist mentioned in the previous verse, or by fashioning it through some other process from elements present on the earth, and then causing the body to become alive by a process described as breathing the breath of life into the body via the nostrils, which sounds a bit like artificial respiration. Needless to say, a lot of detail seems to be missing from this account.

Genesis 2:6

But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

1. At some point following the creation of the plants, but prior to their growth on the earth, a mist or light fog watered the ground.

Genesis 2:5

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.

1. This sheds new light on the creation. I had assumed from the previous verses that God created the plants and man on the earth, but it appears from this statement that He created them prior to introducing them to the earth.
2. God created plants for the earth before He caused it to rain on the earth. This suggests He either created them in a state or form that did not require water, or that He had them in water elsewhere and then transported them to the earth.
3. This verse, like a few previous ones, raises interesting questions about the creation process God followed. Not only is it not clear how many individuals were involved, but now it is not clear how it was done or when they occurred. One thing appears fairly certain, however - God did not simply issue a command for plants to begin growing and, blink, there they were.

Genesis 2:4

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,

1. The book of Genesis up to this point has described the developmental stages of the earth and the heavens.
2. Until now only the titles "God" and "Spirit of God" have been used. Now, the title "LORD God" has been introduced in referring to the creator of the heavens and earth.
3. According to several sources, including the Wikipedia article about "God", the word "LORD" appears in the Bible in all capitals, it "represents the personal Hebrew name of god, Yahweh."

Genesis 2:3

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

1. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, making it holy.
2. Although God is capable of long periods of work, He also enjoys and/or needs a rest from work.
3. The tradition of resting from work one day each week dates back to the creation of the world.
4. More masculine pronouns are used here in reference to God, reinforcing the idea that God is a male.
5. God apparently did not rest on the eighth day but resumed His work, whatever that was. Either that or the author of Genesis neglected to mention it or did not have that information.

Genesis 2:2

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

1. God rested from His creative work on the seventh day - that is, the day after He created mankind.
2. Here are more masculine pronouns, once again suggesting that God, who directed the creation of the heavens and the earth, was a male.

Genesis 2:1

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

1. God had finished the heavens, the earth, and the creatures that would live upon the earth.

Genesis 1:31

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

1. God observed everything He (and His assistants) had made and judged it to be very good.
2. This concluded the 6th day of God's creative work.

Genesis 1:30

And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

1. God provided all green herbs to land-based animals for their food.

Genesis 1:29

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

1. God told the man and woman that he had given them the herbs and fruits of the trees for food.
2. God must have instructed the man and the woman before this point about the edible herbs and fruit so they would know which they were. Otherwise, they might have eaten poisonous ones, which would have ruined his plan.

Genesis 1:28

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

1. God blessed the man and woman He created. It isn't clear what this means.
2. God commanded the man and woman to produce many offspring.
3. God commanded the man and woman to replenish and subdue the earth. In addition to populating the earth with their offspring, I think replenshing and subduing the earth means to cultivate it, replant after harvesting/cutting, and keep it viable. I think it also means to care for and manage the animals, taming them where possible and useful, ensuring they have adequate and healthful space to multiple and replenish the earth as they were commanded.
4. God is capable of verbal communication with humans.
5. God must have taught the man and the woman a language prior to giving them a commandment, unless He somehow created them with that skill. He may have delegated this to someone else on his staff.
6. Unless these commandments regarding reproduction, and management of the earth's resources only applied to the first man and woman, or have since been revoked, they must still apply.
7. I suppose it's possible that God just issued these commandments and then left the scene, but it seems more reasonable that He would have provided some training for them on these subjects - things like how to deliver a baby (the man would have appreciated that, I'm sure), farming, which plants were edible and which weren't, etc. He may have delegated this to someone else on his staff.

Genesis 1:27

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

1. Following His plan to do so, God and those working with him created man in God's image.
2. The term "man" here apparently is like the term "human", since it incorporates both the male and female gender.
3. Earth is apparently not the only location where human-like beings exist. (This pertains more to the previous verse, but it just occurred to me.) This must be true since humans on the earth were created after the image of others (see verse 26) who already existed. To what extent we are alike is not clear from these two short verses, but at a minimum we look very similar.

Genesis 1:26

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

1. God declares His intention to create man (plural).
2. Judging from the use of the pronoun, "our", God is apparently speaking to those who will assist Him in creating man. This further supports my previous suspicions that God was directing others and reviewing the quality of their work.
3. Man will look like God.
4. God has a specific form after which man can be patterned. Therefore, it must be assumed that God looks like or has the same features as man.
5. God intends to give man control over the earth and all the animals.

Genesis 1:25

And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

1. God made the beasts of the earth, cattle, and everything that creeps upon the earth.
2. The phrase, "after his kind", used repeatedly here, suggests to me that God followed a pattern or example in creating the animals. In other words, the creation of the first cow on earth was not really the very first cow ever created anywhere, but was like other pre-existing cows. How could a beast be created after his kind if none of his kind existed? The only other possibility I can think of is that God created the first of its kind in the previous verse, and then created a whole bunch more using the first as the pattern. If that were true, it's also possible the previous verse refers just to drawings or specifications or a spiritual equivalent for these animals, not the real thing.
3. Either this verse just repeats what the previous verse said, or something more happened here, such as God (or others under His direction) carried out the plan He announced in the previous verse. There is plenty of repetition in Hebrew scripture, so it seems it could be interpreted either way at this point.
4. God observed that the results of this creative effort were good. Again, this is stated as if God were watching someone else perform the work under His direction, and that it was His role to judge the quality of the work. If God did the work himself, there would be little point in His making a judgment about its quality, unless we assume God is capable of doing less than good work and He wasn't sure if it would turn out well or not. Alternatively, it may just be God's personality to state the obvious.

Genesis 1:24

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

1. God issued a command that cattle, creeping things and other land-dwelling beasts be introduced upon the earth.
2. These creatures were to reproduce after their own kind - that is, cattle would reproduce cattle, etc.
3. God's commandment was obeyed. How it occurred is not explained.

Genesis 1:23

And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

1. The creation of sea life and birds constituted God's 5th day of creative work.

Genesis 1:22

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

1. God blessed the animals in the seas and the air to multiply and be numerous.
2. God gives blessings verbally, using language that can be understood or at least translated.
3. It is apparently a blessing, not only for these animals, but for all creatures, including humans, to have numerous offspring.
4. The difference between God's command in verse 20, "let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature . . .", and this blessing is not completely clear to me, except it appears verse 20 is talking about the initial creation of these animals, whereas this addresses their reproduction.
5. Did these animals hear and understand the blessing given them by God? It has clearly been fulfilled.

Genesis 1:21

And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

1. Included in the creative acts during this day was the creation of great whales.
2. This is not terribly clear, but I get the sense that once God had created each of the animals in the sea and air that they multiplied, each reproducing their own kind. That animals reproduced their own kind would seem to oppose the theory of evolution as it pertains to the development of new species or kind.
3. God recognized that the result of all this creative effort was good.

Genesis 1:20

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

1. God directed that animal life should be established in the water and the air.
2. In some sense the waters brought into existence, generated, or produced life, both for the seas, lakes and rivers, as well as the birds in the air. Whether this supports the theory of evolution or not is hard to say from so little information.

Genesis 1:19

And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

1. The creation of the sun, moon and stars constituted God's 4th day of creative work.

Genesis 1:18

And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

1. See comments for verse 16 regarding ruling over the day and the night.
2. God already divided the light from the darkness during the 1st day, so presumably he did more to accomplish this during this 4th day. Perhaps what he did during the 1st day was much more fundamental than I previously thought, since he hadn't yet created the sun, moon or stars; someone with more training in physics might have more technical thoughts on the subject. The work on the 4th day seems definitely related to light received by the earth.
3. God recognized and declared the work accomplished on the 4th day to be good.

Genesis 1:17

And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

1. God established the sun, moon and stars in their orbits so they would give light to the earth.

Genesis 1:16

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

1. God made two great sources of light for the earth - the sun and the moon.
2. The sun defines and is preeminent during the day; the moon is the most prominent source of light during the night.
3. God also made the stars.

Genesis 1:15

And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

1. The sun, moon and stars were also created to provide light for the earth.
2. The sun, moon, stars and other heavenly bodies visible from the earth were created as God commanded.

Genesis 1:14

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

1. God declared his [I'm continuing to use the pronoun "his" for convenience, even though I don't think the single occurrence of a male pronoun so far is sufficient proof that God is male.] intention to create the sun, moon, stars and other light-emitting or reflecting heavenly bodies.
2. The sun, moon and stars can be used to measure parts of days, days, seasons and years.
3. Some things involving heavenly bodies may actually be signs.
4. God thought it was important to divide time into various segments. I wonder what it would be like to live without any of the time divisions to which we are accustomed?

Genesis 1:13

And the evening and the morning were the third day.

1. One day follows another.
2. Each day has a morning and an evening.
3. Vegetation was introduced to the earth during one of God's days.

Genesis 1:12

And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

1. The earth responded to God's command by bringing forth plants capable of reproducing themselves.
2. God decided that each species would reproduce itself. Apple trees would not produce oranges, and wheat would not produce oats.
3. God was pleased with the way plants were designed and functioned on the earth.
4. Here's an example of the masculine "his" being used in reference to plants. It calls into question the assumption that God is a male solely based upon the use of the pronoun "he" in Genesis 1:5.