Commentaries Dictionaries Concordances

The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

Genesis 2:18

GENESIS—NOTE ON Genesis 2:18 Not good is a jarring contrast to Genesis 1:31. Helper is one who supplies strength in an area that is lacking in the one who is helped. Fit for him or “matching him” (see esv footnote) is not the same as “like him.” A wife is not to be just like her husband but is to complement him. I will make him can also be translated “I will make for him,” which explains Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 11:9.

⇐ ⇔ ⇒
Continues after advertising

See also Genesis 2:18 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Genesis 2:18. _IT IS NOT GOOD THAT THE MAN SHOULD BE ALONE_] לבדו lebaddo; only himself. _I will make him a help meet for him_; עזר כנגדו ezer kenegdo, a help, a counterpart of himself, one for...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    - XIII. The Naming of the Animals Here man’s intellectual faculties proceed from the passive and receptive to the active and communicative stage. This advance is made in the review and designation of...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    II. THE GENERATIONS OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH Man in Innocency before the Fall Genesis 2:4-45 _ 1. The earth his abode (Genesis 2:4)_ 2. The creation of man (Genesis 2:7) 3. The garden of Eden...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    J'S STORY OF CREATION AND PARADISE LOST. This story does not belong to P, for it is free from its characteristics in style, vocabulary, and point of view. It is distinguished from P's creation story b...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    J'S STORY OF CREATION AND PARADISE LOST. This story does not belong to P, for it is free from its characteristics in style, vocabulary, and point of view. It is distinguished from P's creation story b...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    MEET. as his counterpart....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    The Creation of Animals and of Woman 18. _It is not good_, &c. Man is created a social animal. His full powers cannot be developed by physical and mental work alone; nor his moral being by self-discip...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    IT IS NOT GOOD, &C.— Though man was possessed of all the bliss of Paradise, one thing was still wanting to his felicity. He was alone; nor amidst the various orders of creatures could find any like un...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    PART NINE: THE BEGINNING OF SOCIETY (Genesis 2:8-25) And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow ev...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    _AND THE LORD GOD SAID, IT IS NOT GOOD THAT THE MAN SHOULD BE ALONE; I WILL MAKE HIM AN HELP MEET FOR HIM._ It is not good that the man should be alone, [Hebrew, _ LªBADOW_ (H905), in his separation...

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    2:18 like. (h-21) Or 'counterpart.'...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    PARADISE AND THE FALL In this famous passage we possess a wealth of moral and spiritual teaching regarding God and man. The intention of the writer is evidently to give an answer to the question: How...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    HELP MEET] This is not one word but two, the former being the noun and the latter the qualifying adjective on which the main emphasis lies. Man might have many helps; the vegetable and animal creation...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    A ‘helper’ means a person who will work together with another person. It does not mean a servant or a slave. We know that because the word ‘helper’ can mean God. Exodus 18:4 says, ‘My father’s God was...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    GOD’S ANCIENT PEOPLE GENESIS _ALUN OWEN_ CHAPTER 2 GOD RESTS V1 So the sky and the earth were complete. Everything that was in them was complete. V2 On the seventh day, God had finished his work...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    IT IS NOT GOOD... — In these words we have the Divine appointment of marriage, and also the declaration that the female is subsequent in order of production to the male, and formed from him. In Genesi...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    EXCURSUS C: ON THE DURATION OF THE PARADISIACAL STATE OF INNOCENCE. The _Bereshit Rabba_ argues that Adam and Eve remained in their original state of innocence for six hours only. Others have supposed...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וַ יֹּ֨אמֶר֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהִ֔ים לֹא ־טֹ֛וב הֱי

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    THE CREATION Genesis 1:1; Genesis 2:1 IF anyone is in search of accurate information regarding the age of this earth, or its relation to the sun, moon, and stars, or regarding the order in which plan...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    MAN AND WOMAN, TEMPTATION Genesis 2:18; Genesis 3:1 Human love is God's best gift to man. Without it even Eden would not be Paradise. That Adam was able to name the animals, affixing a title suggeste...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    This chapter gives us a fuller account of man. Three distinct movements are chronicled in the brief but comprehensive account. First, "Jehovah God formed man of the dust." The Hebrew word "formed" su...

  • Gary Hampton Commentaries

    A HELP SUITED TO MAN Everything had been good until man was created. Then God observed, "It is not good that man should be alone" (2:18). God planned to make a helper (aid) "corresponding to him" or...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 1 Timothy 2:13; Ephesians 5:31. As the apostle speaks of this as a figure, and we know that Adam was...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    18._It is not good that the man should be alone _(136) Moses now explains the design of God in creating the woman; namely, that there should be human beings on the earth who might cultivate mutual soc...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    In chapter 2 we have man's relationship with God, and his own portion as such. Hence the LORD [1] God is introduced: not merely God as a creator, but God in relationship with those He has created. Hen...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    AND THE LORD GOD SAID,.... Not at the same time he gave the above direction and instruction to man, how to behave according to his will, but before that, even at the time of the formation of Adam and...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    And the LORD God said, [It is] not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. Ver. 18. _And the Lord God said._] Had said; to wit, on the sixth day when he made man, and...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _God said_ Had said on the sixth day, when the woman was made. _It is not good that man should be alone_ Though there was an upper world of angels and lower world of brutes, yet, there being none of t...

  • KJV Original Language Details

    1 The first Sabbath. 4 The maner of the creation. 8 The planting of the garden of Eden, 10 and the riuer thereof. 17 The tree of knowledge onely forbidden. 19-20 The naming of the creatures. 21 T...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    The Lack of Companionship for Man...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. A divine decree introduced the creation of man, a divine declaration precedes that of woman. It is...

  • Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures

    SECOND SECTION _Man—Paradise—the Paradisaical Pair and the Paradisaical Institutions,—Theocratic—Jehovistic._ GENESIS 2:4-25. A. The Earth waiting for Man. 4These are the generations [genealogies]...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    THE SEVENTH DAY The first three verses here are directly connected with chapter 1. "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished." The work of the first creation occupied s...

  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

    MEET FOR HIM: _ Heb._ as before him...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    18-25 Power over the creatures was given to man, and as a proof of this he named them all. It also shows his insight into the works of God. But though he was lord of the creatures, yet nothing in thi...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    THE LORD GOD SAID, or, _had said, _ to wit, upon the sixth day, on which the woman was made, GENESIS 1:27. NOT GOOD; not convenient either for my purpose of the increase of mankind, or for man's perso...

  • Notes on the Pentateuch by Charles Henry Mackintosh

    The chapter introduces to our notice two prominent subjects, namely, "the seventh day" and "the river." The first of these demands special attention. There are few subjects on which so much misunderst...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Genesis 2:18 LORD H3068 God H430 said H559 (H8799) good H2896 man H120 be H1961 (H8800) make...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    THE TREE-COVERED PLAIN IN EDEN (GENESIS 2:4). ‘In the day that the Lord God made earth and heavens, when no plant (siach) of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb (‘eseb) of the field had yet sp...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    MAN'S ESTABLISHMENT AND FALL (GENESIS 2:4 TO GENESIS 3:24) TABLET II. Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 form a unit distinguished by the fact that God is called Yahweh Elohim (Lor

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    ‘And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper who is suitable for him (literally ‘as in front of him')”. And out of the ground the Lord God formed (or had...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: God's Sabbath rest. The creative act of Genesis 1:27 explained. The Edenic covenant. CHARACTERS: God, Adam, Eve. CONCLUSION: Man is a threefold being, body, soul and spirit. The real man i...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Genesis 2:1. By _host_ is meant, not the angels, as some have thought, but the starry heavens. Psalms 33:6. Genesis 2:2. _On the seventh day God ended his work._ The Samaritan Pentateuch reads, the si...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _I will make him an help meet for him_ THE CREATION OF WOMAN I. WOMAN WAS BROUGHT TO MAN IN ORDER THAT SHE MIGHT RELIEVE HIS SOLITUDE BY INTELLIGENT COMPANIONSHIP. II. WOMAN WAS BROUGHT TO MAN THAT...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.— Genesis 2:18. Help meet] Prob. “according to his front” (Dav.) or “corresponding to him” (Ges., Fürst, Dav.). GENESIS 2:19. TO SEE WHAT HE WOULD CALL THEM] Or: “that he [Adam] might...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION GENESIS 2:18 In anticipation of the ensuing narrative of the temptation and the fall, the historian, having depicted man's settlement in Eden, advances to complete his _dramatis personae _...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

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

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    good. Genesis 1:31 Genesis 3:12 Ruth 3:1 Proverbs 18:22 Ecclesiastes 4:9

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    It is not good that man — This man, should be alone — Though there was an upper world of angels, and a lower world of brutes, yet there being none of the same rank of beings with himself, he might be...

Continues after advertising