62 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the Z ver. 9. knowledge of good and evil, a thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof b thou shalt surely die. a ch. 3. 1, 3, 11, 17. b ch. 3. 3, 19. Rom. 6. 23. 1 Cor. 15. 56. Jam. 1. 15. 1 John 5. 16. Adam's sentence. His labour other wise 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 He went in conseagency, to go. quence 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. ¶ And put him into the garden. Heb. made him to stay, or abide; somewhat improperly rendered 'put.' -¶ 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 The exact order after her formation. of time is frequently departed from in the sacred narrative, and probably in It would seem the present instance. 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, C ཐྭ 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 result what sense to affix to the terms. opportunity under the circumstances in It is an awful character of sin that it which man was placed in Paradise, of draws after it consequences of which violating the moral law; and the com- the perpetrator is often very little mand not to eat of a particular tree was aware, and which nothing but the dolean easy prohibition, when free indul-ful event can fully disclose. gence 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 18. Not good that man should be alone. Heb. 1317 3 not good is the being of the man in his separation, or solitary state. As 19. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Ad f e ch. 1. 20, 24. f Ps. 8. 6. See ch. 6. 20. am to see what he would call them; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. no female help.' A man, wishing to say something to his wife, will address her as follows: 'My help meet, hear what I am going to say.' It is worthy of observation, that the margin has for gives a proper view of her condition, for she literally has to stand before her husband to serve him on all occasions, and especially when he takes his food; she being then his servant. Say to a woman, Leave thy husband!' she will reply, 'No, no; I will stand before him.' Roberts. poses connected with his creation, that he should remain in dreary solitude, a stranger to the blessings of society, having none with whom to share the sweet interchange of thought and feeling, or to partake the cares, occupa-help meet, as before him;' and this tions, and comforts of life. Indeed it is scarcely possible to conceive how, with the constitution God had given him, it would have been possible for man to have been happy in Eden itself if left to a state of utter loneliness. The Creator, therefore, kindly purposed to fill this dreary void, to complete what was wanting to the felicity of his creature, in the formation of a being like himself and every way suited to the exigencies of his condition.- -T An help meet for him. An help or companion suitable for him. The exact rendering of the original is, 'An help as before him,' i. e. one corresponding to him, one adapted to him, a counterpart of himself, one like him in person, disposition, and affection, united to him in the tenderest tics, always present before him to aid, sympathise with, and comfort him; in a word, a second self. Such was the merciful provision which the Most High determined to make for man that his cup of innocent bliss might be full.-'This is the polite way of speaking of a wife in the East, though it must be confessed that they associate with this term too much of the idea of a servant. Does an aged person advise a young friend to get married; he will not say, 'Seek for a wife,' but 'Try to procure a thunive, an help meet.' A man who repines at his single state, says, 'I have not any female help in my house.' A widower says, 'Ah! my children, I have now ་ 19. Out of the ground the Lord God formed. Or Heb. 'had formed.' This verse and the following seem to be inserted here, immediately prior to the account of the woman's formation, in order to intimate the necessity there was for a new creation to supply Ad am's lack of a companion. On a survey of all the animal tribes there was none found suitable for the purpose. With this, however, was connected another reason, to wit, the naming of the animals, which is especially mentioned.- -¶ Brought them unto Adam. That is, conducted them by a secret supernatural impulse, as they were afterwards brought to Noah to be gathered into the ark. This like most other parts of the narrative of the creation, has been the subject of infidel cavil. It being ascertained, say the objecters, that animals are exclusively adapted to the respective regions which they inhabit, it would be contrary to their nature to leave their indigenous climates, and they would not assemble at one place. Of course, the account cannot be received as a literal fact, but must be understood in some mytholo gical or figurative sense. ern materalist and skeptic asserts, 'that the representations of all animals being brought before Adam in the first in-field and climate of Paradise. As to stance, and subsequently of their being the reasons of such a proceeding, it may all collected in the ark, if we are to un- have fulfilled a number of benevolent derstand them as applied to the living purposes, though not particularly meninhabitants of the whole world, are tioned by the sacred historian. (1.) It zoologically impossible.' Lawrence's might have been the means of assuring Lectures on Physiology, § 2, c. i. p. 130. Adam of the power and dominion over If by the expression 'zoologically im- the animal creation with which he was inpossible' it be only intended that such vested by his Maker; for when he beheld a concourse of animals could not be various species of beasts thus coming to effected by their own natural instincts, crouch at his feet, to sport and gambol beno one will doubt the assertion. Sup- fore him, he might conclude that they posing-what by the way really re- were innoxious, and subjected to his aumains to be proved-that there was thority by an overruling power. (2.) By then the same diversity of climate that such an appointment the Almighty might exists now, we may admit that those design to give him such a knowledge peculiar to the polar regions, and to the of their nature and properties as was torrid zone, would certainly never as-requisite in his peculiar situation in the semble in any one spot without an immediate exertion of divine power. But he, at whose word the immense variety of living animals burst into being, could surely bring them together, and, when so congregated, could easily have supplied them with the means of support. Till it can be shown that the Deity could not perform, or that there could be no sufficient reasons for performing, such a miracle, objections of this nature can have no weight. But we may be content to take less elevated ground, and to understand the passage in a re-ience of man. (3.) In seems plainly stricted signification. The Heb. word 3kol, all, it is well known, does not invariably mean all in the largest sense, but sometimes many or much; and that it was designed to be received with some limitation in the present case is evident from the fishes of the sea not being specified, and the inutility of giving names to such animals as were to inhabit distant regions of the globe, and which Adam might never afterwards see. It is also uncertain whether the assemblage consisted of those only which were within the precincts of the garden of Eden, or inclu Thus a modded others; inasmuch as the expression, 'every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air,' may only denote the infancy of the world. Had he remained ignorant of the ends which they were intended to serve, he could not have used them to any beneficial or valuable purposes. Many years must have rolled away before he could have learned this by experience; and it might therefore suit the benignity of the Divine Being to communicate to Adam how his dominion over the creatures was to be exercised, and how their powers and qualities might be made subservient to the comfort and conven intimated by the historian that the assembling of so many animals together was in part designed to convince Adam of his solitary condition, and of the necessity of a partner to the completion of his happiness. The various species of creatures doubtless came in pairs; he saw them adapted to each other in external form and identity of instincts, while for himself there was not found an help meet for him.' Though lord of the creation, yet panting for something unpossessed; though surrounded with living creatures, yet feeling the listlessness of solitude, he would discern that he alone was destitute of a companion, generations. If the second, the mean a cheerless and lonely hermit roving ing evidently is, that they were brought amidst a wilderness of delights. And to Adam that he might see by deeply when he received from the bounty of contemplating them, by attentively heaven his new-created bride, he would studying their nature and properties, be impelled to increased veneration of by observing the peculiar habits and inhis beneficent Creator. (4.) The im- stincts of the several species, how they position of names upon the animal cre- were most appropriately to be named. ation by their new master, might like- To do this correctly so shortly after his wise be intended to call into play the vo- creation would seem to have required a cal powers with which he was endowed. stretch of intelligence absolutely miracHe must early have acquired the use ulous, and we deem it not unlikely that of language, as an associate would have he was supernaturally assisted in doing been given him in vain, unless they it. However this may be, it is strenu could have communicated with each ously contended by Bochart and others, other through the medium of speech; that the names of the animal tribes they would have been deprived of all which we meet with in the Hebrew the pleasures arising from rational and Scriptures are the same that Adam social intercourse. If language was gave them at the beginning, and these, heaven-taught, and certainly the hu- as is well known, are for the most part man faculties appear unequal to its in- significant. Josephus says, 'God brought vention, no period agrees so well with to Adam the several species of animals the revelation as that when Adam exhibiting them to him male and female, formed the vocabulary of the living and he imposed upon them the names creatures. In the above enumeration by which they are even now called.' we may not have assigned all the real So long, however, as the question rereasons for bringing a part of the animal specting the claims of the Hebrew to becreation to Adam for the purpose speci- ing the primitive language remains enfied, but we have stated enough to con- compassed with all the difficulties which vince us, that, so far from being objec- modern researches in comparative phitionable, it was an instance of God's lology have thrown around it, this indulgent care and tenderness to the can be regarded only as an hypothesis, first man; and consequently that it venerable indeed for its antiquity, but cannot be urged against the literal in- lacking in that clear evidence which terpretation of the history.- - To see alone can command belief in reflecting what he would call them. Heb. 13 minds. In fact the whole subject of language, its origin, development, diversities, &c. is one which, from its peculiarly subtle and complex nature, is perhaps more calculated to task the powers of the human intellect than any other which comes within the range of its inquiries. A bare entrance has as yet been made upon it, as a theme of philosophical investigation.--¶ And whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name of it. This is but another mode of saying, that Adam's choice of names entirely met the divine approbation, so that no necessity call him or it, i. e. each one of them; an act which implies his being invested with sovereignty over them, as is plain from what is said of bestowing names, Dan 1. 7. Num. 32. 38, 42. The phrase, 'to see what he would call them,' may be understood either of God or of Adam. If the first, it is spoken after the manner of men, implying not that he would thereby receive any new information, but simply that a demonstration would be made of the extraordinary wisdom and sagacity of his creature, one which should strikingly impress all future |