nation provides for the geologists the long duration of antecedent time which they require, by alleging that although the first verse is connected with those that follow in order of time, yet that the 'days' subsequently named are not natural days, but successive intervals of time, sufficiently long to allow a satisfactory explanation of the facts on which geology relies. But defined, throughout the chapter, as the term day' is to its natural meaning by the recurring phrase of morning and evening,' as if with the very object of excluding any such signification, we cannot but fear that the latter explanation does considerable violence to the plainest principles of Scriptural interpretation. On that ground alone we should be disposed to prefer the former; which seems to us even better than the other suited to the demands of geological science, while it does not appear that Biblical criticism can urge any substantial objection to it. It is indeed true that every other division of the book has its own proper introduction, and analogy might assume this to be of the same nature. But it may be replied, that the other introductions are merely inscriptions, whereas a close examination seems rather to show this to be an historical statement of what first took place, followed by a continuous account of subsequent transactions.

2. Without form and void.' — The original words, nann tohu va-vohu, convey the idea of confusion and desolation; in which sense they recur in Job xii. 24; Isa. xxxiv. 11; xiv. 18; Jer. iv. 23. The ancient versions agree in this meaning. It is well remarked by Dr. Turner, in his note here, that the descriptions in this chapter are evidently prepared in reference to a supposed observer, who watches the changes, until the wild and desolate confusion, gives place to a world of perfect order and harmony. The Spirit of God moved, etc.-Preparatory to the result of reducing the primitive confusion to order, the Spirit of God is represented as acting upon the waters, impregnating the dead substance with the principles of life and action. The Hebrew word numerachepheth, translated moved,' involves a figure taken from the motion of birds hovering and brooding over their young. So Milton correctly paraphrases by

'Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss.' Hence, probably, the old mythic representations of the world under the figure of an egg may have been derived.

3. And God said.'-This phrase, which occurs so frequently in the present chapter, is generally allowed to express, under the figure of an oral commandment, the idea that the successive creations sprang forth into existence in compliance with God's will, and by the exertion of his power. This kind of figure is common in Scripture.

5. The evening and the morning were the first day.'This phrase is explained by the mode of measuring the day which is still preserved by the Jews, and is in use among the Mohammedans. They do not reckon from midnight to midnight as we do, nor from sunrise to sunrise as some Oriental nations, but from sunset to sunset. Hence the night with the following day, and not the day with the following night, makes their day. Our Friday night is their Saturday night. The ancient inhabitants of western and central Europe, the Gauls, Celts, and Germans, measured the day in the same manner.

6. A firmament.'” · The Hebrew word prakia, strictly signifies a substance extended by beating out or rolling, or any other mode of working upon a ductile mass. The old word 'firmament' is therefore a good translation, corresponding with the Septuagint σrepéwua, and the Vulgate firmamentum.' Many modern interpreters have sought to nullify the unphilosophical idea of a solid concave shell over our heads, in which the sun, moon, and stars are immoveably fixed, by using the word 'expanse.' But it is to be considered that here and elsewhere the sacred writer speaks of things as they appear, without encumbering his statements with revelations of scientific facts then unsuspected. No doubt they felt their minds acquiescing in this word ("expanse "), as expressing very well the diffused fluid which surrounds the earth; and so

leaving us at liberty to conceive of its increasing tenuity till it is lost in the planetary spaces. But this is transferring a modern idea to times and persons that had it not. The Hebrew language has no word for air, properly speaking; because they knew not the thing. Their nearest approaches were with words that denote watery vapour condensed, and thus rendered visible, whether floating round them, or seen in the breathing of animals; and words for smoke arising from substances burning; and for air in motion, wind, a zephyr-whisper, or a storm. But of elastic fluids they had no idea.'-Dr. J. Pye Smith, Scripture and Geology, p. 363.

11, 12.-The word translated 'grass' is applicable to every kind of verdure in the state of sprouting, when taken collectively; while that rendered 'herb' denotes the maturity of its growth. The terms 'herb yielding seed' are very emphatic in the original, which are literally herb seeding seed, exactly imitated by the Septuagint σnepov σrépua. Although the object of the Scripture was not to teach men philosophy, but religious and moral truth, yet we often find deep philosophy also. So here we have a most important hint about the distribution of plants, which was made, not by a reference to their colours, size, or foliage, but by a specific allusion to the nature of the seed.

14. Let there be lights.'-Here the formation of heavenly bodies is stated to have been the work of the fourth day, whereas light itself is described as having been created on the first day. It may be asked, How could there be 'lights,' and divisions of day and night before the 'lights' themselves existed. This is without doubt the gravest difficulty which the chapter offers, and has formed a ground of strong objection to the Mosaical record of the creation. It has often been replied, that previously to the creation of the sun, the light divided between the day and night, by being diffused or withdrawn according to the will and power of God, who on the fourth day concentrated the light in the body of the sun. But this scarcely satisfies the mind. We know that God could do this; but we know also that God does nothing in vain: and the recurrence of the evening and morning, mentioned in connection with the three first days, being exactly the same as the following, would seem to have arisen from the same cause. And this view may be defended on either of two suppositions: first, that the Mosaic creation is that of the earth simply, and that the heavenly bodies are said to have been formed on that day because on that day they showed themselves through the purified atmosphere in all their glory, as adapted to shed light over the earth, and to designate divisions of time; or, secondly, that the creation of the heavenly bodies may have been contemporaneous with that of the earth. The formation of the sun may have been commenced on the first day; and the light then called into existence for the benefit of the earth's chaos may have flowed from his orb, its rays being originally feeble, but gradually increasing in strength and intensity, as his own creation and that of our globe were both advancing towards perfection. There is nothing in the third verse which requires the admission that light burst at once in all its splendour upon the unformed material, neither is such a supposition consistent with analogy. Gradual formations characterise the works of nature; and the Mosaic narrative affords no evidence that the original creation was effected by the instantaneous production of the perfectly constructed creature. Turner's Genesis, pp. 131-139.

See

'For signs and for seasons.'-This is doubtless a hendiadys, meaning for signs of seasons,' in other words to designate seasons. That any thing occult is intended, as the old astrologers used triumphantly to allege, or supernatural, as some very modern critics have ventured to assert, has no foundation in the context or in the plain meaning of the words.

20, 30. The moving creature, etc.-In these two verses we have the most ancient, and therefore the most interesting, example of zoological classification on record. The effect of this arrangement is much impaired in the authorised translation, but is clearer in the original: and the

student of Scripture will find it advantageous to retain in mind the principles of this arrangement, which we shall here state in accordance with the view taken by Colonel C. Hamilton Smith in the article BEAST, in the Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature. The arrangement begins with the lower order of moving creatures,' and advances by regular gradations to man: thus,

The

1. sheretz, translated moving creature.' word comes from a root signifying to bring forth or multiply abundantly; and might therefore be rendered the rapidly multiplying or swarming creature. The eminent naturalist just named, regards this denomination as comprehending animalcula, crustacea, insecta, etc.

II. D'aŋ tanninim, translated ‘great whales.' This denomination may include whales, but cannot be limited to them. It seems to comprehend, according to the above authority, fishes and amphibia, including the huge tenants of the waters, whether or not they also frequent the land, crocodiles, python serpents, and perhaps even those which are now considered of a more ancient zoology than the present system, the great saurians of geology.' This extent of signification is deduced from the various passages in which the word occurs; and which show that it could not be confined to one species, or even genus of animals.

III. oph, the winged tribe; birds, fowls.

IV. Still advancing, we come to quadrupeds, arranged in three divisions or orders: 1. na behemah, rendered 'cattle.' The word signifies properly a 'dumb beast;' but is usually confined to the ruminant herbivorous animals, which are generally gregarious and capable of do

CHAPTER II.

1 The first sabbath. 4 The manner of the creation. 8 The planting of the garden of Eden, 10 and the river thereof. 17 The tree of knowledge only forbidden. 19, 20 The naming of the creatures. 21 The making of woman, and institution of marriage.

THUS the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2 '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 made.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God 'created and made.

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the

1 Exod. 20. 11, and 31. 17. Deut. 5. 14. Heb. 4. 4. the ground. 5 Ecclus. 17. 1. 1 Cor. 15. 47.

mestication. Hence it occurs most frequently in application to domestic cattle.

2. chayyah, means 'living,' that is, 'living thing.' It occurs in v. 25, to denote wild animals as opposed to tame, and is there translated beast of the earth.' But where tame animals are not mentioned, as in v. 30 and elsewhere, it denotes all quadrupeds, as opposed to birds; and in one place (Lev. xi. 14) it occurs in the wide sense of all kinds of beasts, including even aquatic animals. Here, however (v. 30), it is clearly applied to carnivora, or beasts of prey, as distinguished from herbivora, and so supplies an important link in the arrangement.

remes. The creeping things' of vv. 25, 26; REPTILES; minor quadrupeds, such as creep by means of many feet, or glide along the surface of the soil, serpents, annelides, &c. Lastly, we come to

V. DN adam, MAN, standing alone in his intellectual supremacy.

29. Behold, I have given you every herb,' &c.-Plants and fruits only being specified as the articles of sustenance allowed to man, it is considered by many commentators that animal food was not permitted until after the Flood, when we find it granted to Noah under certain restrictions. There is no difficulty in supposing that animal food may not have been in use in the primitive times; for it can hardly be said to be so, generally speaking, at the present day in Asia. The mass of the people have it only occasionally and in small quantities, and many do not eat flesh meat more than two or three times in a year. Whether eaten or not, animals were certainly killed for sacrifices before the Deluge.

'dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and 'man became a living soul.

8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11 The name of the first is 'Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon the same is it that compasseth the whole land of "Ethiopia.

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel that is it which goeth 'toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

16 And the LORD God commanded the 3 Or, a mist which went up from, &c. 4 Heb. dust of 9 Or, eastward to Assyria.

61 Cor. 15. 45.

8 Heb. Cush.

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

12

18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

13.

19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto "Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

15

20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of

11 Heb. eating thou shalt eat. 16 Heb. builded.

21 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;

Verse 2. On the seventh day God ended his work.'— This should rather be translated had ended, as appears from the context that he ended on the sixth day, and rested' (not as implying repose after labour) on the seventh. The Hebrew text is, however, probably corrupted; the Samaritan and Septuagint read the 'sixth' day.

5, 6. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain,' etc.— These two verses are evidently designed to contrast the condition of the earth with respect to the soil and its products at the time of the creation, with that which was subsequently exhibited. In the first chapter, Moses had mentioned the formation of plants on the third day. Now, proceeding to the most ancient history of the earth and of man, he explains in what manner they were afterwards propagated, and introduces his account by remarking that vegetable productions did not spring from the ground through the influence of rain and human industry, but by a direct divine power. Since then nature has taken its ordinary course. Mists have risen from the ground, and have come down in refreshing showers; and man, formed of the earth, and endowed with a divinely communicated principle of life, has cultivated the soil, &c. This obvious explanation shows that the text offers no foundation for the conclusion, which some have drawn from it, that there was no rain previous to the Deluge.

8. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden,' etc.. to v. 15.-There is probably no subject on which so great a diversity of opinions has been entertained as concerning the site of the Paradise in which the progenitors of mankind were placed. Mohammedans even believe that it was in one of the seven heavens from which, according to their notion, Adam was cast down upon the earth after the Fall. 'Some,' says Dr. Clarke, place it in the third heaven, others in the fourth; some within the orbit of the moon, others in the moon itself; some in the middle regions of the air, or beyond the earth's attraction; some on the earth, others under the earth, and others within the earth.' Every section of the earth's surface has also, in its turn, had its claim to this distinction advocated. From this mass of conflicting opinions we shall select the two which have been supported by the most eminent authorities, and which seem to have the stongest probabilities in their favour.

It has been assumed that, in whatever situation, otherwise probable, the marks by which Moses characterises the spot are to be found, there we may suppose that we have discovered the site of Paradise. In fixing the first probability, the all but unquestionable fact that the known rivers Euphrates and Tigris are mentioned as two of the four rivers of Eden, is of the greatest importance; and therefore

15 Heb. called.

the most exact inquirers have not sought for the spot at any point distant from those rivers. The Euphrates and Tigris being thus then identified with two of the rivers of Eden, there has still remained a great latitude in the choice of a site for the garden, some looking for it near the sources of those rivers, and others seeking it in the low and flat plains through which they flow in the lower part of their course.

The first position places Eden in Armenia, near the sources of the four great rivers Euphrates, Tigris (Hiddekel), Phasis (Pison?), and the Araxes (Gihon?). The similarity of sound between Phasis and Pison is considered to strengthen this opinion, as does also the similarity of meaning between the Hebrew name Gihon and the Greek Araxes, both words denoting swiftness.

One consideration that induced a preference for this site is, that the advocates of this opinion considered 'heads' as applied to the rivers which went forth from the garden to

mean 'sources,' which would therefore render it natural to look for the terrestrial paradise in a mountainous or hilly country, which alone could supply the water necessary to form four heads of rivers. But others-those who would fix the site towards the other extremity of the two known rivers, reckon it sufficient, and indeed more accordant with the text, to consider the four heads' not as sources, but as channels; that is, that the Euphrates and Tigris united before they entered the garden, and, after leaving it, divided again, and entered the Persian Gulf by two mouths; thus forming four channels, two above and two below the garden, each called by a different name. The river or channel,' says Dr. Wells, must be looked upon as a highway crossing over a forest, and which may be said to divide itself into four ways, whether the division be made above or below the forest.' With this view some writers are content to take the present Shat-ul-Arab (the single stream which is formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, and which afterwards divides to enter the gulf) as the river that went through the garden; but as Major Rennell has shown that the two great rivers kept distinct courses to the sea until the time of Alexander, although at no great distance of time afterwards they became united, other writers are contented to believe that such a junction and subsequent divergence did, either in the time of Moses or before the Deluge, exist in or near the place indicated. The Deluge must have made great changes in the beds of these and mary other rivers; and inferior agencies have alone been sufficient greatly to alter the ancient channels of the Tigris and Euphrates. This is not only rendered obvious by an inspection of the face of the country, but the memory of such events is preserved by local traditions, and they are even specified in the writings of the Arabian geographers and his

Region between Bamecan. the Gaages and Nile.

The Sibon, or The Ganges. Jaxartes.

The Nilab, or The Irabatti, The Phasis. Lesser Sind.

India.

Buttmann. Hartmann.

Cashmere.

or The Oxus, or The Nile Jihoon. The Tigris.

The Tigris.

Riv. of Balilac The Indus.

The Hirmend. Th Ganges. The Oxus. The Tigris.

Chavilah. Arabia Felix.

and Cusha.

Abyssinia.

Assyria.

Hazarah.

The following are the works in which the views of the authorities named in this table are developed; and the list will sufficiently indicate the literature of the question :Reland, Dissertt. Miscellaneæ, 1706-1708; Calmet, Dissert. sur le Paradis, in Comment. Littérale, tom. i.; Hales, Analysis of Chronology, 2nd edit.; Faber, Origin of Pagan Idolatry, 1816; J. Pye Smith, art. PARADISE, in Cyclop. of Biblical Literature; Calvin, Comment. in Genes.; Huet, Dissert. de Situ Paradisi Terrest.; Bochart, Phaleg. &c.; Wells, Sacred Geography, 1711; Michaclis, Spicilegium Geographia Hebræor., 1769-1780; Von Hammer, in the Wiener Jahrbuch der Literatur, for 1829, p. 21, &c.; Le Clerc, Comment. in Genes.; Wilford, in Asiatic Researches, vi. 455, seq.; Buttmann, Aelteste Erdkunde d. Morgenlande, 1803; Hartmann, Aufklärung über Asien. These are but specimens of works on the subject, sufficient to form a library of themselves. The most important modern work on the subject is that of Schulthess, Das Paradies, das irdische, und überirdische, historische, mythische und mystische, &c.; that is, 'Paradise, the terrestrial and superterrestrial, historical, mythical and mystical,' Zurich, 1806. It contains a good history of opinions on the subject; but the author himself falls into the common error of making the paradise a vast region rather than a garden.

11. Pison.'-The river Pison is mentioned first, as being the nearest to Arabia Petræa, where Moses wrote, and, on the last mentioned hypothesis concerning Eden, is the westernmost of the two great channels into which the Euphrates and Tigris were divided, after having flowed jointly through the garden. The hypothesis which identifies it with the Phasis has been already mentioned. Faber inclines to make it the Absarus of Pliny, or Batoum of modern geographers, which rises in Armenia and flows into the Black Sea: but Hales believes the Araxes to have a better claim.

- Havilah.'-The same hypothesis requires the land of Havilah to be the eastern tract of Arabia, lying near and on the head of the Persian Gulf. Dr. Wells adduces other passages of Scripture in support of this opinion, and shows that the characteristics here given apply to that country. Faber and others, who place Eden in Armenia, identify Havilah with Colchis, which was famous in ancient times for its gold. Hales adds Georgia to Colchis to form Havilah.

streams of water, which, as they break down and sweep the crumbling soil with them, convey some of its precious contents at the same time.

12. Bdellium.'-The bdellium, once so famous for its medical virtues, is a kind of gum resin, but from what tree originally gathered is at present only a subject of conjecture. The decision, however, of this question is of little importance, since the bedolach of the sacred writer was in all probability the pearl, as the Arabic version has rendered it. If we suppose that the land of Havilah lay near the Persian Gulf, there was good reason for mentioning the pearl among the most distinguished of its natural productions.

Onyx stone,' D ja eben hash-shoham.—The onyx-stone has a whitish ground, and is variegated with bands of white and brown which run parallel to each other. It is a semi-pellucid stone of a fine flinty texture, taking an excellent polish, and is strictly of the flint or siliceous class. The resemblance which its ground colour has to that lunated spot at the base of the human nail was the reason why it was called ovúxior, from uvug, the nail. The Septuagint has translated a bedolach, or bdellium, &#0pağ, a carbuncle, or the choicest kind of garnet; while for onyxstone' we have å λílos & πрáσivos, or prasium, a stone akin to the emerald, but inferior in hardness, lustre, and transparency.

13. Gihon.'-The statement which make the Pison the western, makes this stream the eastern channel by which the re-divided stream entered the Persian Gulf. No trace can now be discovered in the country indicative of either this name or that of Pison. But it deserves to be mentioned, that the Arabs are to this day in the habit of calling a stream by different names in different parts of its course. Tigris has three names before it joins the Euphrates; and if two rivers joined, and afterwards separated, they certainly would, and actually do, call the new channels by names different from the original streams. Some find Gihon in the Araxes; and many in the ancient Gyndes, which, entering the Tigris through Susiana, would correspond well even with the hypothesis which places Eden in the Arabian Irak.

'Ethiopia. This is, of course. not the country in Africa so called. The word in the original and in the margin of our translation is Cush, and is understood to apply here to the land lying to the east of the channel supposed to be the Gihon of Moses. It is remarkable that the district which this would indicate, if Eden lay upon the lower Euphrates, was called by the Greeks and Romans Susiana, and is still called Khuzistan, or the land of Khus or Chus.'

13

6

Euphrates.'-This river is in the text simply mentioned, as too well known to need description. The name in the original is Phrat,' and is still that by which it is locally distinguished. This primitive form of the name remains an element in that which we have adopted from the Greek.

20. And Adam gave names to all cattle.'-The dominion over the beasts of the field had already been given to Adam (i. 30); and nothing could so well satisfy him that he was in full possession of this dominion, as by bringing the creatures before him, and letting him see his own authority by their submission, which was probably evinced by their demeanour, in the presence of that majesty which invested the first of men, before he yet knew sin or sorrow. The names which he imposed upon them were doubtless significant of their nature, just as he was himself named 'Adam' from the ground whence he was taken; and we must therefore conclude that, since he could know nothing from experience, God had given him an insight into the character, qualities, and uses of animals, so far as was necessary for his well-being; and that some knowledge of the kind was necessary to him, must be very evident. It is a favourite remark with the Fathers, that God had himself already assigned to heaven, the earth, the sea, etc., their names, but reserved the naming of the animals to Adam, partly as one act of that dominion which under God he was to exercise over them, and partly as a proper instance in which he might evince his resemblance to his Maker, by his ready apprehension and adequate conceptions of the divine plans and ordinances.

21. Took one of his ribs.'-In the rest of the animal world, the female was created with the male: why, then, was the man made first, and the woman afterwards? Many reasons might be assigned; but we cite only the striking one of St. Basil: 'It was God's pleasure that man, having been created in the last place, in the image of his Maker, should, in addition to the evidence of creation which his own existence and that of other animals afforded, have one signal specimen of the divine operation exhibited in the most lively manner to his faculties and senses' (Orat. ii.). Rosenmüller and many other writers regard the account of the woman's formation from a part of the man's substance

CHAPTER III.

1 The serpent deceiveth Eve. 6 Man's shameful fall. 9 God arraigneth them. 14 The serpent is cursed. 15 The promised seed. 16 The punishment of mankind. 21 Their first clothing. 22 Their casting out of Paradise.

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, 'Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

1 Heb. Yea, because, &c.

(whether this were a portion of his side or one of his ribs) as an allegory, intended to represent the intimate union and affection of the marital relation. But it is more consistent with the generally historical character of the book, to consider the account as that of a real fact. If the woman was to be created, it was no more an impeachment of the divine wisdom to have used a portion of the man's body for the purpose, than it would have been to employ any other materials. He who was able to accomplish this result, could not be unable to do it without pain, or, if necessary, even without consciousness, on the part of the man. There is nothing in this which, more than any part of the narrative, necessitates a resort to parable or allegory. In 1 Cor. xi. 8, For the man was first formed, then the woman,' St. Paul appears to allude to this account; and, if so, it is manifest that he regards it as a historical circumstance.

24. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife.'--If it be true that there are no ideas without objects, the ideas which Adam here expresses must have been imparted to him by special revelation. How else could there have been ideas of parents and children, and of the relations arising from them, when there had not been as yet any parents or children in the world; or ideas of parental affection, in a man who had never been a parent, or had seen the signs of that affection in another; and ideas of filial affection, in one who had never been a son, and to whom, therefore, the conceptions of struggling with that affection, of conquering it, and of preferring another to it, were naturally impossible. This, with other things of the same kind, proves that the intellect of Adam was as preternatural a creation as that of his body, filled as it was with ideas which had as yet no objects, and with conceptions not, as in other men, the result of comparison and experience. It is difficult to resist the conviction that the conceptions which he expresses were imparted, or revealed, to him at the moment when it became necessary that he should possess a clear conception of the relation which husband and wife were destined to bear to each other.

The actual drift of the words which Adam employs seems to be commonly so much misunderstood, that it appears worth while to notice that the obvious meaning, as more precisely indicated in the original, is, that it would be less criminal in a man to desert his father and mother than to desert his wife; not, that he is to desert his father and mother for his wife. Compare this text with Micah ii. 9, and Malachi ii. 11. The fact is, that as the ancient Hebrews paid for their wives, they seemed to consider it as a natural consequence that they should be at liberty to exercise a very arbitrary power over them, and to renounce or divorce them whenever they chose. Moses very clearly saw that this state of things was not equitable as regarded the woman, and was very often injurious to both parties. Finding himself, however, unable to overrule feelings and practices of very ancient standing, he merely annexed to the account of the original institution of marriage, as contained in these verses, the very serious admonition, the purport of which has been indicated.

2 And the woman said unto the serpent. We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened,

22 Cor. 11.3. 1 Tim. 2. 14.