Genesis 2:2

2 And God [ful]filled in the seventh day his work which he made; and he rested in the seventh day from all his work which he had made; (Yea, God finished his work by the seventh day; and so he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had done;)

Genesis 2:2 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 2:2

And on the seventh day God ended his work, which he had
made
Not that God wrought anything on the seventh day, or finished any part of his work on that day, because he could not then be said to rest from all his work, as be is afterwards twice said to do; and because of this seeming difficulty the Septuagint, Samaritan, and Syriac versions, read, "on the sixth day". The two latter versions following the former, which so translated for the sake of Ptolemy king of Egypt, as the Jews say ^F1, that he might not object that God did any work on the sabbath day: and Josephus ^F2 observes, that, Moses says the world, and all things in it, were made in those six days, as undoubtedly they were; and were all finished on the sixth day, as appears from the last verse of the preceding chapter; and yet there is no occasion to alter the text, or suppose a various reading. Some, as Aben Ezra observes, take the sense of the word to be, "before the seventh day God ended his work", as they think (b) may be rendered, and as it is by Noldius ^F3: or the words may be translated, "in the seventh day, when God had ended", or "finished his work" ^F4, which he had done on the sixth day, then

he rested on the seventh day from all his works which he had
made:
not as though weary of working, for the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, nor is weary, ( Isaiah 40:28 ) but as having done all his work, and brought it to such perfection, that he had no more to do; not that he ceased from making individuals, as the souls of men, and even all creatures that are brought into the world by generation, may be said to be made by him, but from making any new species of creatures; and much less did he cease from supporting and maintaining the creatures he had made in their beings, and providing everything agreeable for them, and governing them, and overruling all things in the world for ends of his own glory; in this sense he "worketh hitherto", as Christ says, ( John 5:17 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 T. Bab. Megilla fol. 9. 1. & Gloss. in ib.
F2 Antiqu. l. 1. c. 1. sect. 1.
F3 Concord. part. Eb. p. 144. No. 1007. Perfecerat. "ante diem septimum"; some in Yatablus.
F4 (lkyw) "et compleverat", Drusius; "quum perfecisset", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "had finished", Ainsworth.

Genesis 2:2 In-Context

1 Therefore heavens and earth be made perfect, and all the ornament of those. (And so the heavens and the earth, and all their ornaments, were finished.)

2 And God [ful]filled in the seventh day his work which he made; and he rested in the seventh day from all his work which he had made; (Yea, God finished his work by the seventh day; and so he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had done;)

3 and he blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; for in that day God ceased of all his work which he made of nought, that he should make. (and he blessed the seventh day, and made it holy; for on that day God ceased from all his work which he had made out of nothing, that he had intended to make.)

4 These be the generations of heaven and of earth, in the day wherein the Lord God made heaven and earth, (These be the generations, or the creation, of the heavens and the earth, in the days when the Lord God made the heavens and the earth,)

5 and each little tree of [the] earth before that it sprang out in [the] earth; and he made each herb of the field before that it burgeoned. For the Lord God had not (yet) rained on the earth, and no man there was that wrought the earth (and there was no man yet to work the earth);