He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
Genesis 3:10 (NIV)After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
Genesis 15:1 (NIV)
If you study it from the beginning, you’ll see that Genesis 15 is speaking directly to the things of Genesis 3.
These are the first two instances of this word “afraid” in scripture.
The entire story unfolds this way.
It doesn’t have to be true. But it’s fun!
From the Wikipedia article on the word/name “Eber:”
The 13th-century Muslim historian Abu al-Fida relates a story noting that the patriarch Eber, the great-grandson of Shem, refused to help with the building of the Tower of Babel. As a result, his language was not confused when the tower was abandoned. He and his family alone retained the original Adamic language, which he identified as Hebrew, a language named after ʿEber.
Here are the clues:
Noah had three sons, and could not have four.
Ham had four sons (Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan); Noah curses Canaan, who is the fourth one.
And there is one more clue.
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.
The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.)
The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.
The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur.
And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Genesis 2:10-14 (NIV)
A quick glance at Genesis 2 lists four rivers. I broke down the verses by river, and you see a clearly descending order of detail, with the Pishon given a lot of page-space, and the Euphrates barely being described at all.
Ironically, we have no clue where the Pishon or the Gihon are. They don’t exist anymore. They’re never even mentioned outside these verses listed, or outside the Bible. But we know the Tigris and the Euphrates.
You might think the Genesis writers were like, “Oh, everybody knows the Tigris and Euphrates, so we don’t need to describe them much,” but that would mean you haven’t been paying attention. That’s not how how the writers organized the words.
There are allegories here.
Rabbi Fohrman wrote that the Genesis 2 account of rivers is a prophetic cutting-off of what should have been. God told Noah to be fruitful and multiply: to have a fourth river, but Ham’s action (whatever it may have been) made it impossible.
The river is named, but it goes nowhere, like a child you’ve named in the womb, or a child you dreams of having.
Noah’s action of cursing Ham, in this view, is retaliation: you cut me off, so I’m cutting you off in the same way; your fourth for my fourth. Your river for my river.
Maybe Noah even named this fourth planned son, but the plan goes nowhere.
So maybe Noah stopped trusting God at this point.
When Adam and Eve were told to be fruitful and multiply, the consequence of eating the fruit was death, which created the first “oh no! How will God fulfill his blessing of *be fruitful and multiply* if humanity dies?”
God’s solution: Adam names his wife Eve, which means LIFE. The antidote to death.
When Eve thought that Cain was God’s promise, only to have Cain kill Abel, this was the second “on no! How will God fulfill his blessing? There are no more sons!”
God’s solution: Seth is born. God appointed Seth as the conduit to bring His promises into humanity.
When God sees the whole world is corrupt and will wipe it all out in a flood, the reader experiences the third “oh no!”
God’s solution: He preserved Noah and his family, even though the sons were not “good” according to the story. They were corrupt like the world.
So Noah is accustomed to this. When God tells him directly to be fruitful and multiply (to replace his corrupt sons?), whatever Ham does creates the next “oh no!”
Rather than wait for God to provide a solution, Noah unleashes a curse into his own family line.
So what will God do now?
God’s solution: I will use Shem, broken or not, and I will bring the fulfillment of my promise through him. I will maintain the goodness of my Name through him.
And “Shem” means “name.”
The story of Scripture is about God fulfilling His promise, no matter what happens, whether it’s our own disobedience, or the disobedience of our children, or of the whole corrupt world.
God will not be stopped from fulfilling His promises.
However, this word “curse” here in Genesis 8 (kalal) is *not* the same as the one in Genesis 3 (arar).
The Lord smelled the soothing aroma, and the Lord said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.
Genesis 8:21 (NIV)
The Genesis 8 kalal means to make light or to render insignificant. To treat as worthless or despised.
The Genesis 3 arar means cursed and suggests a binding, or a punishment.
So when we read that Adam was a worker of the ground before sin entered the world, and then told that he will toil and struggle with the ground after sin, we see a change – the ground is cursed. Bound up. Not fruitful like it was before.
In Genesis 4, when we read that Cain was a “tiller of the ground,” we are supposed to see it and go “uh oh…” because we already know that the ground is cursed. And Cain’s labor leads to murder.
So when we read Genesis 9 and we see that the curse of Genesis 3 is perhaps not abated by Genesis 8, we should be startled to see how Noah is described.
Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.
Genesis 9:20-21 (NIV)
We should expect things to go sideways. And they do.
Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.
Genesis 7:4 (NIV)
If 40 means a period of testing in Hebrew numerology, and we’ve been introduced to the concept of “pure” in verse 2 by way of the word “clean,” we are given a statement in verse 4 that is going to tell us what God is doing, just like God was telling Noah what He was doing.
The face of the “earth” would normally be the face of “eretz,” in Hebrew. But here, it is not “eretz.” It is “adama.” It is the ground from which Adam (thus, all of humanity) is made. It points to us.
And then “living creature” has been “nefesh chayah” every time until this verse. Living creatures.
But here, it is “yekum,” which is very, very odd. The KJV translates this most closely to the literal meaning: “living substance.”
I. living substance, that which stands or exists, existence, substance
H3351: יְקוּם (yᵊqûm)
There are only two other places it is used in the Scriptures. The next time we see it is in verse 23, where it is clear that God did what He said. He has wiped out “yekum.”
And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
Genesis 7:23 (KJV)
But the more interesting instance is Deuteronomy 11:6, where it means a person’s possessions. Their stuff. The things in them that, perhaps… needed to be removed.
And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel:
Deuteronomy 11:6 (KJV)
And so Genesis 7:4 may point to this understanding: God is providing a period of testing (40 days) that is meant to remove the impurities (yekum) from us (adama).
This is purification. This is gold purified by fire. This is God making us into people who reflect Him.
This is about the grief and suffering of the dying.
We have a vocabulary about death. We say things like “at least it was a quick death,” or “at least they died in their sleep.”
In the sadness of loss, we acknowledge the mercy found in certain kinds of death. This sort of death is… better. Better than suffering.
For the one experiencing the loss of a loved one, these phrases don’t lessen the pain, but it is helpful to know that the words are true, isn’t it? It’s good to know that loved ones who die this way did not experience prolongued agony and pain before they passed.
But it doesn’t lift the grief. It is still sorrowful.
But what about those who do suffer in agony?
I won’t describe any of it, because there are those who know already know people who have died this way, and they don’t want to be reminded. We have witnessed it. We have grieved it. And we have prayed for it to be over. We have prayed for an end of the suffering. For mercy.
And when the end comes, we are left with the most troubling and turmoil-filled spirit. We prayed for the end, but then we grieved the loss. We are relieved that their suffering stopped, but we didn’t want to lose them.
This is sorrow.
In Genesis 6, prior to the flood, the text mentions the “wickedness of man.”
We’ve been taught to read this as written in the English. Humanity is completely wicked, so the Flood waters are a judgement to wipe out the earth in God’s wrath.
But that is not the whole picture.
The word here for “the wickedness” is the noun-form of the word ra’. We translate it as “wickedness” or “evil,” but the word carries the connotation of suffering. So when we read “…and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time,” we are being told something important.
Can you see it?
III. evil, misery, distress, injury
1. evil, misery, distress
2. evil, injury, wrong
3. evil (ethical)
H7451: רַע (raʿ)
The text is not describing a humanity in defiance or disobedience to a holy God who must respond in wrath. That’s not the story. It is describing a humanity that is suffering. They are in misery. And they are dying. The curse of sin (death) has laid hold of all of them.
And when the text says “the Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled,” we see it clearly.
This form of “regretted” is compassionate mercy.
1. (Niphal)
1. to be sorry, be moved to pity, have compassion
2. to be sorry, rue, suffer grief, repent
3. to comfort oneself, be comforted
4. to comfort oneself, ease oneself
H5162: נָחַם (nāḥam)
And this form of “grieved” is precisely that feeling of troubling and turmoil-filled sorrow. It is the ending that you wish didn’t have to happen, but you understood that it would be worse if it didn’t.
5. (Hithpael) to feel grieved, be vexed
H6087: עָצַב (ʿāṣaḇ)
This is what our God is showing us with this story.
This stems from Adam and Eve’s eating from the tree of the knowledge of Good & Evil. This evil is the source of the suffering of humanity.
The narrative isn’t pointing to a God who is punishing us for doing the wrong thing. It is about a God grieving our suffering from it.
But God does not leave us in our suffering.
In Noah (whose name means “comfort“), we see God pointing to restoration. We see God making a new covenant and promising that this Flood will not happen again. Perhaps it’s because He will one day end all of our suffering.
So the Lord was sorry that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe out mankind whom I have created from the face of the land; mankind, and animals as well, and crawling things, and the birds of the sky. For I am sorry that I have made them.”
Genesis 6:6-7 (NASB)
Twice in Genesis 6, the text says God was “sorry” He made humanity. The KJV renders this word as “repented.” Both work and are contained in this word “nawkham.”
But something no translation does is point out that this word also carries an implication of “comforting.”
I. to be sorry, console oneself, repent, regret, comfort, be comforted
I. (Niphal)
1. to be sorry, be moved to pity, have compassion
2. to be sorry, rue, suffer grief, repent
3. to comfort oneself, be comforted
4. to comfort oneself, ease oneself
H5162: נָחַם (nāḥam)
It strikes me when a word is use twice in rapid succession in the text, as though the author is drawing our attention to it. This isn’t a grammatical requirement; the text doesn’t have to say “sorry” twice… but it does.
And it’s this idea of “comfort” that seems to ring.
The other time we heard this word “comfort” was in the previous chapter, when we are told about Noah’s birth. Noah’s name is related to “comfort.”
And he named him Noah, saying, “This one will give us comfort from our work and from the hard labor of our hands caused by the ground which the Lord has cursed.”
Genesis 5:29 (NASB)
And what do we see? Comfort from what? From the work and hard labor from the ground God cursed.
If we jump back to Genesis 6, where God said he was sorry he “made them,” we have another fascinating connection to Noah.
While “awsah” does mean “make,” it also means… “to work.”
As in… “to work the man.”
I. (Qal)
1. to do, work, make, produce
2. to do
3. to work
4. to deal (with)
5. to act, act with effect, effect
H6213: עָשָׂה (ʿāśâ)
Consider this tie of Genesis 5 and 6 together:
Humanity cried out for COMFORT from their WORKS. God is “sorry” or “repents” TWICE, meeting their cry for COMFORT. He was grieved because their WORK led to their misery.
When God cursed the ground in Genesis 3, humanity had to toil and work, and this work became a great suffering and misery to humanity. They cried out once… and God responded twice: “nawkham, nawkham.”
Perhaps limiting their lives to 120 years shortens the suffering.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6:4 (NIV)
The actions of the “sons of God” here are written in stark and glaring contrast to Genesis 4:1, where it says that Adam knew his wife Eve.
I believe the text is describing violence.
Adam himself is TECHNICALLY not “just a human,” being born of dirt and spirit.
ויולד בדמותו כצלמו, “he begot a son in his likeness in his image;” the emphasis on this is to show us that anything he begot during the previous 129 years were only creatures that did not reflect his likeness or image, i.e. disembodied spirits, mostly מזיקים, injurious, destructive spirits. (Compare 3,20)
Chizkuni on Genesis 5:3
BUT.
Other rabbis in the Midrash have said that being “in Adam’s likeness” meant that he was… born circumcised.
He was righteous (Gen. 6:9). This suggests that he was one of the seven men born circumcised. Adam and his son Seth were born circumcised, as it is written: He begot a son in his own likeness after his image, and he called him Seth (Gen. 5:3).
Midrash Tanchuma on Genesis 5:3
Which is, by the way, NOT ANY WEIRDER THAN ANGEL/HUMAN MONSTER BABIES.
So, always take commentary with a grain of salt. Even mine.