Genesis 2:7

7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

Genesis 2:7 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 2:7

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,
&c.] Not of dry dust, but, as Josephus ^F8 says, of red earth macerated, or mixed with water; the like notion Hesiod ^F9 has; or out of clay, as in ( Job 33:6 ) hence a word is made use of, translated "formed", which is used of the potter that forms his clay into what shape he pleases: the original matter of which man was made was clay; hence the clay of Prometheus ^F11 with the Heathens; and God is the Potter that formed him, and gave him the shape he has, see ( Isaiah 64:8 ) , there are two "jods", it is observed, in the word, which is not usual; respecting, as Jarchi thinks, the formation of man for this world, and for the resurrection of the dead; but rather the two fold formation of body and soul, the one is expressed here, and the other in the following clause: and this, as it shows the mighty power of God in producing such a creature out of the dust of the earth, so it serves to humble the pride of man, when he considers he is of the earth, earthy, dust, and ashes, is dust, and to dust he must return.

And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
which in that way entered into his body, and quickened it, which before was a lifeless lump of clay, though beautifully shapen: it is in the plural number, the "breath of lives" ^F12, including the vegetative, sensitive, and rational life of man. And this was produced not with his body, as the souls of brutes were, and was produced by the breath of God, as theirs were not; nor theirs out of the earth, as his body was: and these two different productions show the different nature of the soul and body of man, the one is material and mortal, the other immaterial and immortal:

and man became a living soul;
or a living man, not only capable of performing the functions of the animal life, of eating, drinking, walking but of thinking, reasoning, and discoursing as a rational creature.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F8 Antiqu. l. 1. c. 1.
F9 Opera & dies, ver. 60.
F11 Martial. l. 10. Epigram. 38.
F12 (Myyx tmvn) Heb. "spiraculum vitarum", Pareus.

Genesis 2:7 In-Context

5 No shrub of the field had yet [grown] on the land, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground.

6 But water would come out of the ground and water the entire surface of the land.

7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

8 The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed.

9 The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the midst of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.