15. 17. But from the absence of any river of note in this region, though it was indeed somewhat distinguished for its treasures of gold and precious stones, it is hardly probable that this is the Havilah here intended. The other person of this name, Gen. 10. 29, was the son of Joktan of the race of Shem. His possessions fell to him to the east of Persia in the country watered by the Indus, in or near the region afterwards termed Cabul, which might, through the oriental pronunciation, be easily derived from Havilah. He was brother to Ophir, whose land was celebrated for gold, and the English editor of Calmet, with other eminent geographers, is of opinion that the ships of Solomon in sailing to Ophir ascended the Indus. The two brothers may be supposed to have settled near together, and if so, the hypothesis is very probable, that the ancient Pison was no other than the modern Indus. And how well this river is entitled to the appellation of abundant will appear from the remarks of Mr. Burnes who has devoted a chapter to a comparison of the Indus and the Ganges in respect to the quantity of water which they severally discharge into the sea. 'It appears from Mr. G. A. Prinsep's essay, that in the month of April, the Ganges discharges, at Sicriguli, about 21,500 cubic feet of water in a second. The average breadth of the river at that place is given at 5000 feet, which is also the velocity in a second of time: while its average depth does not exceed three feet. In the middle of April, I found the Indus at Tatta to have a breadth of 670 yards, and to be running with a velocity of two miles and a half an hour. It happens that the banks are steep on both sides of the river in this part of its 13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. course: so that the soundings, which amount to fifteen feet, are regular from shore to shore, if we except a few yards on either side, where the water is still. This data would give a discharge of 110,500 cubic feet per second; but by Buat's equations for the diminished velocity of the stream near the bed, compared with that of the surface, it would be decreased to 93,465 cubic feet. Some further deduction should be made for the diminished depth towards the shores: and 80,000 cubic feet per second may be taken as a fair rate of discharge of the Indus in the month of April. From what has been above stated, it will be seen that the Indus, in discharging the enormous volume of 80,000 cubic feet of water in a second, exceeds by four times the size of the Ganges in the dry season, and nearly equals the great American river, the Mississippi.' Travels into Bokhara, Vol. I. pp. 137, 138. On the east, therefore, we consider the land of Eden to have extended to the borders of India, and in accordance with this the Targum of Jonathan renders the verse, 'The name of the first river is Phison, which environs (i. e. runs along) the whole land of India, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is excellent.' 12. The gold of that land is good. That is, fine, precious, of superlative excellence. Thus 2 Chron. 3. 5, 'And the greater house he ceiled with fir-tree, which he overlaid with fine gold (Heb. good gold).' -T There is bdellium. Heb. 3 bedolahh. Of the many opinions respecting the true import of the original Hebrew term the most probable is, that it stands for the pearl. Some indeed contend for its being a resinous aromatic gum, exuding from a certain species of tree, and used as in son of Ham, spread themselves, by varous removals, over countries widely separated from each other, the general term appears to have been employed by the Hebrews to denote all the countries of the south, an extensive region spread cense for burning. But we adopt the former opinion, not only because the bdellium is here mentioned along with, gold and precious gems, but for another still weightier reason. Moses describing the manna Num. 11. 7, says that 'it was like the seed of coriander, anding along the southern coast of Asia, the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium.' But we know from another passage Ex. 16. 14, 31, that the manna was white, which corresponds with the colour of the pearl. But neither the round shape of the coriander seed nor the white colour of the manna correspond with the aromatic gum which has received the name of bdellium. The pearl therefore is undoubtedly meant; and it is well known that the shores of the Persian gulf and the Indian ocean, along which the province of Havilah lay, produce finer pearls and in greater abundance than any other place in the world.—————¶ And the onyr-stone. | Heb. shoham. All that is known with certainty of this substance is, that it was a precious stone, probably a kind of flesh coloured agate, resembling the human nail; whence it is rendered in the Greek ve onyx, i. e. nail. It is elsewhere translated beryl, and was one of the gems in which the names of the twelve tribes were engraven and borne on the breast-plate of the High Priest, Ex. 28. 9, 10. from the Persian gulf westward, and 13. The name of the second river is Gihon. A name importing in the original eruption of waters. The identity of this river, like that of the former, can be determined only by fixing the site of the country to which it was contiguous.—¶ The sume is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. Heb. 'land of Cush.' Our English translators, following the example of the Septuagint, have generally rendered Cush by Ethiopia, as though but one country were intended. Such howev-of Moses and assuming the most graer is not the fact, and a want of attention to this will involve some places of Scripture in inextricable confusion. As the different descendants of Cush, the tuitous hypotheses, to make the tract of Eden any other than a large one. As to the garden itself, the reader may, if he chooses, conceive it to have been 14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. x Dan. 10. 4. 15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it. y ver. 8. a district of only a few miles or even therefore in respect to the place where acres in extent.- Since penning the Moses wrote may be said to have been above, the writer has had the pleasure before it, which is in several instances to find that nearly every position here the undoubted sense of the original. taken in regard to the topography of ¶ The fourth river is Euphrates. Eden is unequivocally confirmed by Heb. Pherath, whence it is unithe authority of the eminent lexicogra-versally called by the present inhabitpher Gesenius. He too maintains that ants of the East the Phrat. The name the Pison is the Indus, the Gihon the Nile, and that Havilah was situated on the borders of India. See the articles in his Lexicon on these different names. Euphrates' is supposed to be compounded of two words 'Hu' and 'Pherath' (Heb. ) signifying 'this is Pherath,' as if in answer to a question respecting the name of the river. 14. The name of the third river is This was too noted a stream in the Hiddekel. This is compounded of two time of Moses to require any additionwords implying lightness and velocity, al specification, and therefore he says and pointing consequently to a stream nothing about the countries which it distinguished by a rapid current. That bordered, as he does of the others. The such is the Tigris, universally under- Euphrates is frequently called in the stood to be meant by the Hiddekel, ap- Scriptures by way of emphasis ine pears from the testimony of both an- river,' and 'the great river,' Ps. 72. 8. cient and modern writers. Pliny ex- Deut. 1. 7.-If the view above given of pressly says, 'The Tigris is so called the topography of Eden be correct, it from its celerity.' In the oriental ver- will be seen that it embraced the fairest ions it is called Diglath or Diklath, of portion of Asia besides a part of Africa, which the derivation is thus traced from comprising the countries at present Hiddekel;--Heb. Hiddekel; Syr. Hidkal-known as Cabul, Persia, Armenia, Kurto, whence by dropping the first syllable, Dekalto; whence Diglitho, Diglith, Diglath; from Diglath or Diglith comes Tiglith, Tigrith, Tigris, the l and r, and th and s in the oriental languages being frequently interchanged for each other. This river, as is well known, is a branch of the Euphrates. A particular description must be sought from the works of geographers. T Which goeth toward the east of Assyria. Rather, Heb. A goeth before Ashur or Assyria. The Tigris does not run toward the east of the region of Assyria, but washes it on the west, and distan, Syria, Arabia, Abyssinia, and Egypt. The garden, however, which is said to have been 'eastward in Eden,' was probably situated somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, probably not far from the site of Babylon, a region nearer its eastern than its western limits; but the exact position it is probably vain to attempt to determine. 15. The Lord God took the man. The historian now resumes the thread of the narrative, which had been broken off v. 7, in order to introduce, by way of parenthesis, the description of Adam's sentence. His labour otherwise would have been a mere pleasant recreation. By his being appointed to may be meant either that he was to guard it from the depredations of the wilder class of beasts, or, in a different sense, to preserve it, to maintain possession of it, by continuing obedient and not doing any thing to forfeit it. Viewed in this light, the precept must be taken in immediate connection with what follows. the garden and its localities. By God's taking the man is to be understood, not a physical lifting him up and putting him down in the garden, but simply his ex-'keep' as well as to 'dress' the garden, erting an influence upon him which induced him, in the exercise of his free agency, to go. He went in consequence of a secret impulse or an open command of his Maker. So it is said Josh. 24. 3, of Abraham's leaving the place of his nativity, that God took him and led him into Canaan. See note in loc.- -T And put him into the garden. Heb. made him to stay, or abide; somewhat improperly rendered 'put.' -T To dress it and to keep it. That is, to till, to cultivate the ground, to bestow labour in sowing, planting, rearing, and training the various vegetable | productions which might be necessary for his subsistence, or tend to beautify still farther the paradise of pleasure in which he was placed. Man, even in a state of innocence and surrounded by all the external sources of happiness was not to pass his time in indolent repose. By the very constitution of his animal frame, exercise of some kind was absolutely essential to him, and a peculiar honor is put upon the pursuits of agriculture by their being appointed as the occupation of the head of the human race in his primeval state. Simple labour in the tillage of the earth was not a part of the curse incurred by transgression, but was the destiny of man from the first. It was labouring in toil and sorrow, exhausting and wearing out the physical energies by the hardships of the field, which constituted the bitterness of that part of 16. The Lord God commanded the man. Although the creation of the woman has not yet been expressly detailed, it is still evident from the result that she also was embraced in the prohibition, and this makes it probable that the prohibition itself was not given till after her formation. The exact order of time is frequently departed from in the sacred narrative, and probably in the present instance. It would seem that the work of the sixth day was, (1.) The creation of Adam and the placing him in the garden. (2.) The bringing before him the animal tribes that he might bestow upon them appropriate names. (3.) The creation of the woman. (4.) The grant of all the trees of the garden for food with the exception of the one here forbidden. But the last is apparently by way of anticipation mentioned out of its due order. 17. Thou shalt not eat of it. By this prohibition the Creator saw fit to appoint a special test of obedience to the creature he had formed. Although by the very law of his nature he was bound to love, honour, and obey his Maker, 18 And the LORD God said,, be alone; I will make him an It is not good that the man should help meet for him. c ch. 3. 12. 1 Cor. 11. 9. 1 Tim. 2. 13. Gr. and was moreover disposed to do it, yet punished with all the evil results that as an intimation of God's sovereign followed.¶ In the day that thou eatdominion over all his works, and to est thereof thou shalt surely die. Heb. give to Adam a still more impressive dying thou shalt die. sense of his dependance, he was pleas-Thou shalt die the death.' Implying ed to adopt the method of positive in- by the utmost emphasis of expression stitution or arbitrary enactment, by the absolute certainty of the punishwhich to make trial of his obedience as ment denounced. The threatening we a free moral agent. This was a pro- suppose to have embraced all the evils ceeding altogether wise in itself, worthy spiritual, temporal, and eternal, which of God, and advantageous to man; for we learn elsewhere to be included in the inference would seem to be inevita- term death as a punishment for sin. ble, that in case he had stood the test The meaning is not that temporal death and come out steadfast from the ap- should be inflicted the same literal day / pointed ordeal, his rewards would have on which the offence was committed, been proportioned to the conflict, and but on the day of his eating he was to that he, together with his posterity, become dead in trespasses and sins; would have been confirmed in a holy the seeds of decay and dissolution were and happy state secure from ever after- to become sown in his body, which wards falling by transgression. As to should thenceforth become mortal, and the particular injunction laid upon Ad- finally be brought down to the grave; am, it has indeed often been cavilled at as and he should be made liable to what is absurd and derogatory to the Supreme usually understood by the pains of eterBeing. But as the perfections of the nal death in another world. Adam, inDeity demand obedience from all his ra- deed, might not at the time have undertional creatures, something must have stood the full import of this dreadful been enjoined upon our first parents as sentence, having had no experience of a test of their fidelity. It could not, any thing which would enable him to however, be any moral obligation like do so; but we are taught by the actual those in the Decalogue, there being no opportunity under the circumstances in which man was placed in Paradise, of violating the moral law; and the command not to eat of a particular tree was an easy prohibition, when free indulgence in all other fruits was granted; while it was a suitable test of Adam's fidelity, inasmuch as it was placed in the garden with him, and gave him every moment an opportunity of testify-man was originally formed with oring his obedience by abstaining from it. gans, faculties, and affections adapted The infringement of this injunction was to social intercourse, the Creator saw therefore an act of direct rebellion that it was not good, i. e. not fit nor against the sovereign authority of the convenient, not consistent with his Creator, and was accordingly justly highest happiness, nor with the pur result what sense to affix to the terms. It is an awful character of sin that it draws after it consequences of which the perpetrator is often very little aware, and which nothing but the doleful event can fully disclose. 18. Not good that man should be alone. Heb. 13 not good is the being of the man in his separation, or solitary state. As |