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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Genesis 2:21

deep sleep The word is used in Genesis 15:12; 1 Samuel 26:12; Isaiah 29:10 indicating a mysterious heavy sleep sent by God. Heb. tardêmah, LXX (ἔκστασις, Lat. sopor. The mystery of Divine working is thus hidden from man's perceptions.

one of his ribs Symbolizing the closeness and intimacy of the relation between the sexes. Woman, formed from the side of man, is to be the "help meet for him." As his own flesh, he is to watch over and protect the woman. The story is a parable interpreting the instinct of love.

It is man's description, respecting the origin of woman, as of one made for man, after man, and subordinate to him. The "rib" is mentioned presumably, because "ribs" are comparatively numerous, and it was thought that one could be spared without structural loss.

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See also Genesis 2:21 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Genesis 2:21. _THE LORD GOD CAUSED A DEEP SLEEP TO FALL UPON ADAM,_ _c._] This was neither swoon nor ecstasy, but what our translation very properly terms a _deep sleep_. _AND HE TOOK ONE OF H...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    - XIV. The Woman 21. תרדמה _tardēmâh_, “deep sleep,” ἔκστασις _ekstasis_, Septuagint. צלע _tsēlā‛_, “rib, side, wing of a building.” 23. פעם _pa‛am_, “beat, stroke, tread, anvil.” אישׁ...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    II. THE GENERATIONS OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH Man in Innocency before the Fall Genesis 2:4-45 _ 1. The earth his abode (Genesis 2:4)_ 2. The creation of man (Genesis 2:7) 3. The garden of Eden...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    J'S STORY OF CREATION AND PARADISE LOST. This story does not belong to P, for it is free from its characteristics in style, vocabulary, and point of view. It is distinguished from P's creation story b...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    J'S STORY OF CREATION AND PARADISE LOST. This story does not belong to P, for it is free from its characteristics in style, vocabulary, and point of view. It is distinguished from P's creation story b...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    CAUSED A DEEP SLEEP— Adam having, by the Divine assistance, surveyed the creatures, whom he found corresponding according to their species, and in all respects adapted to each other, became fully sens...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    PART NINE: THE BEGINNING OF SOCIETY (Genesis 2:8-25) And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow ev...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    _AND THE LORD GOD CAUSED A DEEP SLEEP TO FALL UPON ADAM, AND HE SLEPT: AND HE TOOK ONE OF HIS RIBS, AND CLOSED UP THE FLESH INSTEAD THEREOF;_ And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, ...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    PARADISE AND THE FALL In this famous passage we possess a wealth of moral and spiritual teaching regarding God and man. The intention of the writer is evidently to give an answer to the question: How...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    GREAT WHALES] Heb. denotes rather creatures like serpents, crocodiles, etc. The symbolical account of the creation of woman teaches the close relationship of the sexes, and the dependence of woman on...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    The bone was a rib. A rib is a thin bone in the upper part of the body. V23 Then Adam said, ‘This at last is my bone and it is part of my body....

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    GOD’S ANCIENT PEOPLE GENESIS _ALUN OWEN_ CHAPTER 2 GOD RESTS V1 So the sky and the earth were complete. Everything that was in them was complete. V2 On the seventh day, God had finished his work...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    EXCURSUS C: ON THE DURATION OF THE PARADISIACAL STATE OF INNOCENCE. The _Bereshit Rabba_ argues that Adam and Eve remained in their original state of innocence for six hours only. Others have supposed...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    AND THE LORD GOD CAUSED A DEEP SLEEP (comp. Job 4:13, where it is the same word) to fall upon Adam. — Heb., the man. ONE OF HIS RIBS. — The word is never translated _rib_ except in this place, but alw...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וַ יַּפֵּל֩ יְהוָ֨ה אֱלֹהִ֧ים ׀ תַּרְדֵּמָ֛ה עַל...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    THE CREATION Genesis 1:1; Genesis 2:1 IF anyone is in search of accurate information regarding the age of this earth, or its relation to the sun, moon, and stars, or regarding the order in which plan...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    MAN AND WOMAN, TEMPTATION Genesis 2:18; Genesis 3:1 Human love is God's best gift to man. Without it even Eden would not be Paradise. That Adam was able to name the animals, affixing a title suggeste...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    This chapter gives us a fuller account of man. Three distinct movements are chronicled in the brief but comprehensive account. First, "Jehovah God formed man of the dust." The Hebrew word "formed" su...

  • Gary Hampton Commentaries

    A HELP SUITED TO MAN Everything had been good until man was created. Then God observed, "It is not good that man should be alone" (2:18). God planned to make a helper (aid) "corresponding to him" or...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _A deep sleep. Septuagint, "an ecstacy," or mysterious sleep, in which Adam was apprised of the meaning of what was done, and how the Church would be taken from the side of Christ, expiring on the cro...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 1 Timothy 2:13; Ephesians 5:31. As the apostle speaks of this as a figure, and we know that Adam was...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    21._And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall, etc. _Although to profane persons this method of forming woman may seem ridiculous, and some of these may say that Moses is dealing in fables, yet to...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    In chapter 2 we have man's relationship with God, and his own portion as such. Hence the LORD [1] God is introduced: not merely God as a creator, but God in relationship with those He has created. Hen...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    AND THE LORD GOD CAUSED A DEEP SLEEP TO FALL UPON ADAM, AND HE SLEPT,.... This was not a common and natural sleep that Adam fell into, occasioned by any weariness of the animal spirits, in viewing the...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; Ver. 21. _And the Lord God caused a deep sleep._] It may be...

  • Jonathan Edwards' Notes On The Scriptures

    Gen. 2:21. "Adam received Eve as he awaked out of a deep sleep;" so Christ receives his church as he rises from the dead. Dr. Goodwin speaks of this deep sleep of Adam as a type of Christ's death, 1st...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _God caused a deep sleep_, &c. That the opening of his side and the taking away of his rib might be no grievance to him. While he knows no sin, God will take care that he shall feel no pain. The woman...

  • KJV Original Language Details

    1 The first Sabbath. 4 The maner of the creation. 8 The planting of the garden of Eden, 10 and the riuer thereof. 17 The tree of knowledge onely forbidden. 19-20 The naming of the creatures. 21 T...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. Sleep is the natural restorer of man's bodily and mental vigo...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    The creation of Woman...

  • Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures

    SECOND SECTION _Man—Paradise—the Paradisaical Pair and the Paradisaical Institutions,—Theocratic—Jehovistic._ GENESIS 2:4-25. A. The Earth waiting for Man. 4These are the generations [genealogies]...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    THE SEVENTH DAY The first three verses here are directly connected with chapter 1. "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished." The work of the first creation occupied s...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    18-25 Power over the creatures was given to man, and as a proof of this he named them all. It also shows his insight into the works of God. But though he was lord of the creatures, yet nothing in thi...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    1. GOD CAUSED A DEEP SLEEP TO FALL UPON ADAM, that he, who was without sin, might feel no pain in the taking away of his rib. And in this sleep some think Adam was in an ecstasy, wherein he saw what w...

  • Notes on the Pentateuch by Charles Henry Mackintosh

    The chapter introduces to our notice two prominent subjects, namely, "the seventh day" and "the river." The first of these demands special attention. There are few subjects on which so much misunderst...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Genesis 2:21 LORD H3068 God H430 sleep H8639 fall H5307 (H8686) Adam H121 slept H3462 (H8799) took...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    ‘So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept, and he took one of his sides and closed up its place with flesh. And the side that he had taken from the man he made into a wom...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    THE TREE-COVERED PLAIN IN EDEN (GENESIS 2:4). ‘In the day that the Lord God made earth and heavens, when no plant (siach) of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb (‘eseb) of the field had yet sp...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    MAN'S ESTABLISHMENT AND FALL (GENESIS 2:4 TO GENESIS 3:24) TABLET II. Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 form a unit distinguished by the fact that God is called Yahweh Elohim (Lor

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: God's Sabbath rest. The creative act of Genesis 1:27 explained. The Edenic covenant. CHARACTERS: God, Adam, Eve. CONCLUSION: Man is a threefold being, body, soul and spirit. The real man i...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Genesis 2:1. By _host_ is meant, not the angels, as some have thought, but the starry heavens. Psalms 33:6. Genesis 2:2. _On the seventh day God ended his work._ The Samaritan Pentateuch reads, the si...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam_ THE FIRST SLEEP How profound is the mystery of sleep! It is one of those riddles of familiar life of which we know so little; about which thought...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _I will make him an help meet for him_ THE CREATION OF WOMAN I. WOMAN WAS BROUGHT TO MAN IN ORDER THAT SHE MIGHT RELIEVE HIS SOLITUDE BY INTELLIGENT COMPANIONSHIP. II. WOMAN WAS BROUGHT TO MAN THAT...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    GENESIS—NOTE ON GENESIS 2:4 Earth’s First People. Centered initially on the garden of Eden, the episodes in this part of Genesis 1:1 recount how God’s ordered creation is thrown

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.— Genesis 2:18. Help meet] Prob. “according to his front” (Dav.) or “corresponding to him” (Ges., Fürst, Dav.). GENESIS 2:19. TO SEE WHAT HE WOULD CALL THEM] Or: “that he [Adam] might...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION GENESIS 2:18 In anticipation of the ensuing narrative of the temptation and the fall, the historian, having depicted man's settlement in Eden, advances to complete his _dramatis personae _...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had mad...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    Genesis 15:12 1 Samuel 26:12 Job 4:13 Job 33:15 Proverbs 19:15...

  • Wells of Living Water Commentary

    THE FIRST WOMAN Genesis 2:20; Genesis 3:1 INTRODUCTORY WORDS When we enter into the Bible story of creation there is something that makes it all seem so real, so definite, and so certain. Evolution...

  • Wells of Living Water Commentary

    ADAM AND EVE Genesis 2:19 INTRODUCTORY WORDS Genesis is the Book of beginnings. The only thing, so far as man is concerned, before Genesis, is God. Revelation is the Book of the beginning again. We...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    This was done upon the sixth day, as was also the placing of Adam in paradise, though it be here mentioned after an account of the seventh day's rest: but what was said in general, Genesis 1:27, that...

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