Genesis 2:6

there went up or "there used to go up," i.e. periodically. The frequentative idea of the verb is given in the LXX ἀνέβαινεν, Lat. ascendebat.

a mist Heb. "êd, a word found elsewhere in the O.T. only in Job 36:27, where it is rendered "vapour." Here the meaning is not certain: the versions (LXX πηγή : Lat. fons: Targum "cloud") reflect the doubt. The English versions follow the Targum. Recently, Assyriologists have compared the Babylonian êdû, meaning a "flood" or "overflowing." It is possible that the rendering "spring" or "stream" maybe more accurate than "mist"; that in Job 36:27 "êdmay denote the "source" of the waters above the heavens; and that here it may refer to the hidden source of the rivers of the world. No account is given of the origin of rain.

watered Literally, "gave to drink"; an expression better suited to a "stream" than to a "mist": cf. Genesis 2:10, where it is used of a river. "The ground," the face of which was watered by it, was "the cultivable soil" (adâmah).