Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Reading Genesis 2:5, "for there was no man to till the ground" is 
meaningless. The writers obviously knew that shrubs grow with human 
assistance; yet, "no shrub of the field existed in the earth." Rather, 2:5 
presents a parallel: "For the Lord God did not cause it to rain on the earth, 
and there was no man to work [irrigate] the land." Thus, neither natural, nor 
artificial irrigation was available, and shrubs did not grow.

The common translation, "No shrub was *yet* in the earth" is misleading; 
"yet" is not there. The account qualifies as a story of drought.



Vadim Cherny