Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
- KJV And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
- BSB And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.
- NKJV The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.
- NASB The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God plants a garden in Eden and places the man there. God prepares a good and abundant home for the one he has formed.
Overview
God plants a garden eastward in Eden and settles the man within it, providing a place of beauty, provision, and fellowship with God. Eden is presented as the setting for life as God intended, marked by his presence and care. This garden, lost through sin, anticipates the restored paradise of God's presence pictured at the end of Scripture (Revelation 22:1-3).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ezek 28:13You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl. Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. In the day that you were created they were prepared.
- Gen 3:24So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
- Gen 13:10Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar.
- Gen 4:16Cain left Yahweh’s presence, and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
- Ezek 31:8–9The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the cypress trees were not like its boughs, and the pine trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty.
- Joel 2:3A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them.
- 2 Kgs 19:12Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?
- Isa 51:3For Yahweh has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness will be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
- Ezek 31:16I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with those who descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth.
- Ezek 27:23Haran and Canneh and Eden, the traffickers of Sheba, Asshur and Chilmad, were your traffickers.
- Ezek 31:18To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth: you shall lie in the middle of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Lay
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Pastoral
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 2:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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