005 – The Genesis 2,4–3,24 project – The literal translation

This is an in-your-face literal translation, perhaps halting, sometimes shocking, rejecting of any word-for-word esotericism, but surely getting the point across inasmuch as this is possible without further explanation arising from the exegesis. I beg the reader’s indulgence to the end of his being intrigued by the presence of 2,4a, the syntax of 2,4b-7, the names of the two special trees and the special breath, the description of the role of the woman and the motherhood of the special woman, the appellative of the serpent and the name of the special sword of the cherubim, among other things. I regret that I can’t get some special fonts to appear using WordPress.com.

2,4a These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth
in their being created:

4b In the day when Yahweh Elohim is forming earth and heavens,
5 and before all of the scrub of the field was being upon the earth
and before all of the herbage of the field was sprouting up,
inasmuch as Yahweh Elohim had not caused it to rain upon the earth
and there was no Adam to work the ground,
6 a precipitation-cloud went up from the earth
and watered the entire surface of the ground,
7 and Yahweh Elohim both fashioned The Adam, dust from the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of the living-ones,
so that The Adam came to be a living individual.

8 And Yahweh Elohim planted a garden in paradise in the beginning;
and He put there The Adam whom He had formed.
9 And Yahweh Elohim made to grow from the earth each tree
[to be] pleasant in appearance and good for food;
and The Tree of the Living-Ones was in the midst of the garden,
and The Tree of Knowing Good and Evil.

10 A river is going forth from paradise to water the garden,
and from there it divides and becomes four head-rivers.
11 The name of the first is Pîšôn;
that is the one which is going about the entire land of Hăwîlāh,
where there is the gold; 12 and the gold of that land is good;
in that place are the bedōlah and the stone of onyx.
13 The name of the second river is Gîhôn;
that is the one which is going about the entire land of Kûš.
14 And the name of the third river is Hiddeqel; [Tigris]
that is the one which is going in front of Assyria.
And the fourth river… That is the one which is Perāt ! [Euphrates]

15 Yahweh Elohim took The Adam
and established him in Garden-Paradise to work it and keep watch over it.
16 And Yahweh Elohim commanded The Adam, saying,
“From each tree of the garden you may surely eat;
17 but from The Tree of Knowing Good and Evil…
You may not eat from it!
for in the day of your eating from it you will surely die.”

18a And Yahweh Elohim said,
“Not good is the being of The Adam unto his separation.
18b I will form for him ‘a help such-as-is-before-him’.”
19a And from the ground Yahweh Elohim formed
each living being of the field
and each bird of the heavens.
19b And He brought [each one] to The Adam to see what he would call each one.
19c And whatever The Adam called it – a living individual –
that was its name.
20a The Adam gave names to each beast and bird of the heavens,
and to each living being of the field.
20b But for Adam… He did not find ‘a help such-as-is-before-him’.
21a And Yahweh Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon The Adam. And he did sleep.
And He took one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh.
22a And Yahweh Elohim built up the rib which he took from The Adam into a woman.
22b And He brought her to The Adam.
23 And The Adam said, “This one, this time, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
To this one it will be called woman, for from man was taken this one.”
24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother
so as to cleave to his woman
so that they become one flesh.

25 And the pair of them were naked, The Adam and his woman,
and were not ashamed in front of each other.

3,1a And the Oracle-Serpent was intelligent diversely
from any living one of the field that Yahweh Elohim had made.
3,1b And he said to the woman,
“Did Elohim really say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’”
2 And the woman said to the Oracle-Serpent:
“From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat,
3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, Elohim said:
‘You shall not eat from it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die’.”
4 But the Oracle-Serpent said to the woman, “You will not die.
5 For Elohim is One knowing that in the day of your eating from it,
your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Elohim,
ones who are knowing good and evil.”
6a And the woman saw that the tree is good for food,
and that it is a desirable thing to the eyes,
and that the tree is being desired to make one wise,
6b and she took of its fruit and she ate;
and she also gave [some] to her man who was with her, and he ate.
7 And the eyes of the pair of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked;
and they sewed the foliage of a fig tree and they made loincloths for themselves.

8And they heard the voice of Yahweh Elohim
proceeding in the garden along the day’s wind,
and The Adam and his woman were hidden from the face of Yahweh Elohim
in the midst of the tree(s) of the garden.
9And Yahweh Elohim called to The Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
10And he said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid
– for I am naked – and I hid myself.”
11And He said, “Who told you that you are naked?
Have you eaten from the tree of which I had commanded you not to eat from it?”
12 And The Adam said, “The woman – whom you gave to be with me –
she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
13 And Yahweh Elohim said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?”
The woman said, the Oracle-Serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 And Yahweh Elohim said to the Oracle-Serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are accursed apart from any beast
and apart from any living one of the field;
upon your writhingness will you go,
and dust will you eat all the days of your life;
15 and I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed;
he will crush you on the head,
but you will crush him on the heel.”

16 To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply your distress and your pregnancy;
in distress you will bear children,
but to your man will be your desire, and he will rule over you.”

17 And to Adam He said, “Because you listened to the voice of your woman,
and you have eaten of the tree of which I had commanded you,
‘You will not eat from it,’
the ground is accursed because of you;
in travail you will eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it will sprout up to you;
and you will eat the herbage of the field;
19in the sweat of your face you will eat bread
until your returning to ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”

20 And The Adam called the name of his woman ‘Hava’,
for she became mother of the entire living one.
21 Yahweh Elohim made for Adam and for his woman garments of skins,
and caused them to clothe themselves.

22 Yahweh Elohim said,
“Behold, The Adam has become like one of us, knowing good and evil;
and now, lest he put forth his hand
so as to take also of The Tree of the Living Ones,
so as to eat, so as to live ‘forever’…”
23 Yahweh Elohim sent him from Garden-Eden
to till the ground from which he was taken.
24 He drove out The Adam;
and He placed in front of Garden-Eden the Cherubim
and the-causing-a-contrary-transformation-sword,
to guard the way to The Tree of the Living Ones.