How Yahweh Created the First Man and First Woman

2:4-25

4 What follows tells more details about the history of what God did when he created the heavens and the earth: During the time when Yahweh who is God made the earth and the heavens, 5 for a while there were not yet any bushes growing in the fields on the earth, and there were not any other plants that had sprouted yet. That was because God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and human beings did not exist yet to cultivate the ground. 6 During that time mist kept seeping up from the earth and supplied water to the entire surface of the ground. 7 Then Yahweh who is God took some dirt from the ground and formed a man out of it. Then he blew his breath into the man’s nostrils to make him live, so that the man became alive.

8 Now Yahweh God had planted a large garden in the region of Eden, which was in the east, and that is where he put the man whom he had formed. 9 There Yahweh had caused all types of trees to grow from the ground that are beautiful to look at and that grow fruit that is good to eat. In the middle of the garden was the tree whose fruit makes people live forever, as well as the tree whose fruit enables people to know what is good and what is evil.

10 There was a river flowing through the region of Eden that provided water for the garden. From there the river divided into four smaller rivers. 11 The first river was the Pishon River, which flowed around through the entire region of Havilah, a place where there was much gold. 12 In fact, the gold from that region was very pure. A type of fragrant resin and valuable onyx gemstones were also in that region. 13 The second river was the Gihon River, which flowed around through the entire region of Cush. 14 The third river was the Tigris River, which flowed east of the region of Assyria, and the fourth river was the Euphrates River.

15 After Yahweh God put the man in Eden Garden to cultivate it and take care of it, 16 he commanded him, “You may eat as much fruit as you want to eat from any tree in the garden, 17 except I forbid you to eat any fruit from the tree whose fruit enables people to know what is good and what is evil. If you eat fruit from that tree, on that same day you will definitely die.”

18 Then Yahweh who is God said, “It is not good for the man to live by himself. So I will create a suitable companion to help him.” 19 Now previously, Yahweh had used dirt from the ground to form all the different types of wild animals and all the different types of birds that fly in the sky. So he brought them all to the man to hear what he would name them. Whatever name the man gave to each kind of animal, that became the name for that kind of animal. 20 The man gave names to all the different kinds of livestock and to all the different kinds of birds that fly in the sky, and to all the different kinds of wild animals, but none of them was a suitable companion to help him.

21 So Yahweh God caused the man to sleep deeply. Then while the man was asleep, God took a rib out of the man’s body and filled in the place where it had been with flesh and healed it. 22 Next Yahweh God made a woman from the rib which he had taken out of the man’s body, and he took her to the man. 23 When the man saw her, he exclaimed,

“Finally! Here is someone like me

who has bones and flesh from me!

I will call her ‘woman,’

because it was from the body of a man that God took her.”

24 Because of that, when a man gets married, he must leave the home of his father and mother, and he must unite with his wife, so that they become completely united.

25 During that time the man and his wife did not wear any clothes, but yet they were not ashamed about it.