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About this book

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 2:20 and Job 12:7

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In Genesis, Adam names the animals of the land and air, but not sea creatures. This absence is apparent when compared to Job 12, where animals of land, air, and sea are invoked as witnesses to divine wisdom, echoing Genesis but expanded to fill that gap.

Passages

Genesis 2:20

Hebrew Bible
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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Job 12:7

Hebrew Bible
6 But the tents of robbers are peaceful, and those who provoke God are confident—who carry their god in their hands. 7 “But now, ask the animals and they will teach you, or the birds of the sky and they will tell you. 8 Or speak to the earth and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea declare to you. 9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

References

"... All human societies group organisms that share certain attributes into labeled taxa of varying degrees of specificity to form a classification system. Thus, a society will divide its entire plant or animal inventory into several primary level taxa (e.g., animals → mammals / fish / birds / invertebrates). These primary level taxa are subdivided into several, more exclusive secondary level taxa (e.g., invertebrates → insects / crustaceans / molluscs), some or all of which are subdivided into several, more exclusive tertiary level taxa (e.g., molluscs → clams / mussels / oysters), and so forth. The process of subdivision ends in a terminal level of specificity beyond which categoric distinctions are no longer made ... An Israelite who was looking at the world through the lens of the tripartite model would have seen it as an articulated totality – a single, broad, physical expanse having three sections. An Israelite who was looking at the world in this way would have seen and taken note of all three sections of the world. Thus, the land and its animals, the air and its animals, and the water and its animals would have all been situated in the foreground of the person’s perception of the world and their thoughts about it ..."
Richard Whitekettle, “The Case of the Missing Fish: Perception, Thought, and the Zoological/Physical Structure of the World in Ancient Israel,” SJOT 38.1 (2024): 25–47.

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 2:20 and Job 12:7

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