Gen 2:19-20 | NETfull | STEP | The Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

Genesis 2:19-20

19 The Lord God formed ^{▼▼ Or "fashioned." To harmonize the order of events with the chronology of chapter one, some translate the prefixed verb form with vav (ו) consecutive as a past perfect ("had formed," cf. NIV) here. (In chapter one the creation of the animals preceded the creation of man; here the animals are created after the man.) However, it is unlikely that the Hebrew construction can be translated in this way in the middle of this pericope, for the criteria for unmarked temporal overlay are not present here. See S. R. Driver, A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew, 84–88, and especially R. Buth, "Methodological Collision between Source Criticism and Discourse Analysis," Biblical Hebrew and Discourse Linguistics, 138–54. For a contrary viewpoint see IBHS 552–53 #33.2.3 and C. J. Collins, "The Wayyiqtol as 'Pluperfect': When and Why," TynBul 46 (1995): 117-40.} out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would ^{▼▼ The imperfect verb form is future from the perspective of the past time narrative.} name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man named all the animals, the birds of the air, and the living creatures of the field, but for Adam ^{▼▼ Here for the first time the Hebrew word אָדָם (’adam) appears without the article, suggesting that it might now be the name “Adam” rather than “[the] man.” Translations of the Bible differ as to where they make the change from “man” to “Adam” (e.g., NASB and NIV translate “Adam” here, while NEB and NRSV continue to use “the man”; the KJV uses “Adam” twice in v. 19).} no companion who corresponded to him was found. ^{▼▼ Heb “there was not found a companion who corresponded to him.” The subject of the third masculine singular verb form is indefinite. Without a formally expressed subject the verb may be translated as passive: “one did not find = there was not found.”}