AISBT ReaderGen 2:15: "to work it and to keep it"
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Gen 2:15: "to work it and to keep it"

Says God places the man בְגַן־עֵדֶן (BSB "the Garden of Eden") לְעָבְדָהּ וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ: two infinitives, each with a feminine suffix, "to work it and to keep it" (BSB "to cultivate and keep it"). BDB glosses the verbs "work, serve" (with senses including "serve God") and "keep, watch, preserve." OSHB tags the noun "garden" as of either gender, and BDB lists it "n.m. & f.." Gen 2:5 lacked a man לַעֲבֹד ("to work") the ground. The pair recurs of Levitical duty at the tent: Num 3:7–8 (וְשָׁמְרוּ … לַעֲבֹד) and Num 8:26. The LXX has ἐργάζεσθαι αὐτὸν καὶ φυλάσσειν.

Uncertain What the work is. (1) Tending and guarding the garden: grounds: 2:5 and 3:23 use the first verb of the ground. (2) Also a priestly service, if the garden is a sanctuary: grounds: Num 3:7–8. Objection: in Numbers the verbs have tent-objects, and here the object is the garden. (3) "To worship and to obey," reading the infinitives as nouns because the feminine suffix seems not to fit the garden. Objection: the noun can be feminine. No lean is taken here.

Claims

  • Saysלְעָבְדָהּ וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ: two infinitives with feminine suffixes (BDB "work, serve", "keep, watch, preserve"); "garden" either gender (OSHB; BDB "n.m. & f."); the pair in Num 3:7–8; 8:26; LXX ἐργάζεσθαι αὐτὸν καὶ φυλάσσειν.
  • UncertainTending and guarding, also priestly service, or "worship and obey"; objections; no lean.

Citations

  • OSHB CC BY 4.0 Gen 2:5, 15 (WLC/OSHB; morph HR/Vqc/Sp3fs, HC/R/Vqc/Sp3fs, HNcbsa)
  • OSHB CC BY 4.0 Num 3:7–8; 8:26 (WLC/OSHB)
  • BDB CC BY 4.0 s.v. H5647, p. 712, entry p.ac.aa; BDB 1906 page image, archive.org hebrewenglishlex00browuoft, leaf n735
  • BDB CC BY 4.0 s.v. H8104, p. 1036, entry v.ef.aa; BDB 1906 page image, archive.org hebrewenglishlex00browuoft, leaf n1059
  • BDB CC BY 4.0 s.v. H1588, p. 171, entry c.cp.ab; BDB 1906 page image, archive.org hebrewenglishlex00browuoft, leaf n194
  • LXX (Swete) CC BY-SA 4.0 Gen 2:15. LXX read on the Swete page image, vol. 1 (1901), p. 3 (leaf n34).
  • BSB public domain Gen 2:15
Sources OSHB CC BY 4.0 BSB public domain BDB CC BY 4.0 LXX (Swete) CC BY-SA 4.0 Bible Scholarship & Tool CC BY 4.0

Quotations from LXX (Swete) are used under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credits

2026-11-10

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