Genesis 2:5

And no plant, &c. If, as is possible, Genesis 2:5 are a parenthesis then Genesis 2:7 carries on the sentence of Genesis 2:4 b. The whole sentence would then run, "At the time when Jehovah Elohim made earth and heaven (there was as yet no plant of the field … face of the ground), Jehovah Elohim formed man." But this arrangement is too cumbrous to be probable. Moreover, the state of things described in Genesis 2:5 is evidently one of considerable duration; it intervenes between the making of the earth and the heavens (Genesis 2:4 b) and the formation of man (Genesis 2:7). It is better to regard Genesis 2:5 as the apodosis to Genesis 2:4 b, "At the time when Jehovah Elohim made, &c., (5) there was as yet no plant, &c., (6) but a mist (or, flood) used to come up, &c."

plant of the field … herb of the field The word "plant "is the same in the original as that rendered "shrub" in Genesis 21:15, the stunted growth of the desert under which Hagar cast her child, and "bushes" in Job 30:4; Job 30:7. The "herb" is the vegetation useful for food and requiring cultivation. There was no "plant" or "bush," because the Lord God had not yet caused it to rain: there was no "herb," because there was no man to prepare the ground. In the absence of rain and of tillage there was no vegetation. The ground originally was desert, without tree, bush, or grass.