Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>]

Does anyone know why 'ed in Genesis 2:6 is translated "mist"? This rendering 
has nothing to do with the root meaning, and both here and in Job "to turn" 
is more likely translation, assuming a derivation from aleph-holam-dalet.

Genesis 2:5 ends with, "Man was not there to work the ground."
Genesis 2:6, "He [man] would turn, he would rise out of the earth, would 
water the whole face of the ground." The man was formed from earth to water 
it.
Genesis 2:7, "Lord God begot the man, dust of the earth he [the man] breathed 
into his nostrils, essence of life; the man was for a living soul."

Translation "the mist" doesn't make much sense: if we assume that the earth 
was waterless, then where the mist came from? Besides, Genesis 1:7 explicitly 
mentions that the earth included much water.

Vadim Cherny