Genesis 2

Genesis 2 read aloud, in a fresh direct translation from the Hebrew — plain modern English, nothing added. Translator's notes: • Genesis 2:6 — אֵד (ed): chose "a mist". Alternatives: "a stream", "a flow of water", "a spring". Why: the word occurs only here and once in Job, so its exact sense cannot be recovered for certain; "mist" keeps it as water rising to wet the ground, as the sentence describes. • Genesis 2:17 — מוֹת תָּמוּת (mot tamut), literally "dying, you will die": chose "you will surely die". Alternatives: "you will die on that day" read as instant death. Why: the doubled verb form in Hebrew strengthens certainty rather than timing, so the rendering keeps the certainty and does not add a timetable the form does not state. • Genesis 2:18 — עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ (ezer kenegdo): chose "a helper fit for him". Alternatives: "a helper corresponding to him", "a helper opposite him", "a helper alongside him". Why: kenegdo is literally "as in front of him" — one who stands face to face as a counterpart; "fit for him" carries that matching in plain English. • Genesis 2:21 — צֵלָע (tzela): chose "rib". Alternatives: "side". Why: elsewhere in the Bible the word means a side — of a building, an ark, a hill — so "side" is the wider sense; "rib" is the traditional anatomical narrowing, kept here because what is taken is then closed up with flesh in its place.