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Genesis

About this book

The Seventh Day

Chapter 2

1 The heavens and the earth were completed with everything that was in them.⁠ 2 By the seventh day God finished the work⁠ that he had been doing,⁠ and he ceased on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing.⁠ 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation.⁠

The Garden and the First Humans

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created—when the Lord God made the earth and heavens.⁠ 5 Now no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. 6 Springs would well up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.⁠ 7 The Lord God formed the man⁠ from the soil of the ground⁠ and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,⁠ and the man became a living being.⁠ 8 The Lord God planted an orchard in the east, in Eden;⁠ and there he placed the man he had formed.⁠ 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, every tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food.⁠ (Now the tree of life⁠ and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil⁠ were in the middle of the orchard.)⁠ 10 Now a river flows from Eden⁠ to water the orchard, and from there it divides into four headstreams. 11 The name of the first is Pishon;⁠ it runs through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is pure; pearls and lapis lazuli are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is Gihon;⁠ it runs through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it runs along the east side of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it.⁠ 16 Then the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.”⁠ 18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.⁠ I will make a companion for him who corresponds to him.”⁠ 19 The Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air.⁠ He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man named all the animals, the birds of the air, and the living creatures of the field,⁠ but for Adam no companion who corresponded to him was found.⁠ 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was asleep, he took part of the man’s side and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the part he had taken out of the man,⁠ and he brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;⁠ this one will be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”⁠ 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife,⁠ and they become one family.⁠ 25 The man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 2:11 and Sirach 24:25

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

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Summary

Genesis describes four rivers flowing from Eden to water the garden and the lands around it. Sirach draws on this imagery and compares the wisdom of the Torah to the life-giving quality of these rivers.

Passages

Genesis 2:11

Hebrew Bible
10 Now a river flows from Eden to water the orchard, and from there it divides into four headstreams. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it runs through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is pure; pearls and lapis lazuli are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it runs through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it runs along the east side of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Sirach 24:25

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
22 He who obeys me will not be ashamed. Those who work with me will not sin.” 23 All these things are the book of the covenant of the Most High God, the law which Moses commanded us for an inheritance for the assemblies of Jacob. 25 It is he who makes wisdom abundant, as Pishon, and as Tigris in the days of first fruits. 26 He makes understanding full as the Euphrates, and as the Jordan in the days of harvest, 27 who makes instruction shine forth as the light, as Gihon in the days of vintage. 28 The first man didn’t know her perfectly. In like manner, the last has not explored her. 29 For her thoughts are filled from the sea, and her counsels from the great deep.
195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

References

"... Sirach 24:23-34 uses water-related metaphors to describe the great wisdom of the Torah. In verses 23-27, the Torah overflows with wisdom similar to the abundant and life-giving waters of the four rivers of the paradise in Genesis 2:11-14 (Pishon, Tigris, Euphrates, and Gihon), and two vital rivers for Judah (the Jordan) and Egypt (the Nile). In verses 28-29, Sirach uses the metaphors of the greatness and depth of the sea to depict the Torah as teeming with wisdom in such abundance that its meaning cannot fully exhausted. In verses 30-31, Sirach thinks at first to use the life-giving water to irrigate his own garden, but suddenly his canal became a river and a sea implying a cosmic dimension of wisdom. Ben Sira’s wisdom is simply the Torah, of which he was the first to benefit, and that has to be taught to others (verses 32-34). In all the three parts of Sirach 24:23-34 (verses 23-27; 28-29 & 30-34), water-related metaphors are used to highlight the nurturing potential of the Torah’s wisdom. The texts emphasize that water is of vital importance for life, a sign of blessing (see also Sirach 15:3; 21:13). Indeed, the text is not about water, but the use of these water-related metaphors to depict the priceless book of Israel highlight is ecologically insightful ..."
Jonathan Kavusa Kivatsi, “The Torah Likened with Nurturing Water of Rivers in Sirach 24:23-34: Eco-Theological Significance,” Pharos Journal of Theology 99 (2018): 1–12.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Genesis 2:11 and Sirach 24:25

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