Genesis 2:1

Summary

Genesis 2:1 marks the closing statement of the creation account, declaring that the heavens, the earth, and everything belonging to them reached completion. The verse functions as a summary clause, using a passive verb form to state that the process described in chapter 1 has ended.

Key words

• va-y'khullu ("and they were completed", H3615G) — pual (intensive passive) verb with narrative vav; the passive voice indicates completion was brought about, without naming an agent in the verb form itself.
• ha-shamayim ("the heavens", H8064) — masculine plural noun with definite article, one of the two subjects of the passive verb.
• ha-'aretz ("the earth", H0776G) — feminine singular noun with definite article, second subject, joined to "heavens" by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002).
• kol ("all", H3605) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning it grammatically links to the following noun as "all of...".
• tzeva'am ("their host", H6635A) — masculine singular noun in construct with pronominal suffix -am ("their", H9028), forming the phrase "all of their host."

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav prefixed to y'khullu, a pual (passive intensive) form of the root meaning "to complete" or "to finish" (H3615G). Because the verb is passive, the grammatical subjects — ha-shamayim ("the heavens") and ha-'aretz ("the earth") — are the entities that underwent completion, not agents performing an action. The verb appears before its subjects, a common word order in Biblical Hebrew narrative, and it agrees with the compound subject as masculine plural.

The phrase kol-tzeva'am ("all their host") is built as a construct chain: kol ("all") governs tzeva'am ("their host"), and the third-person plural suffix -am ("their") refers back to "the heavens and the earth" already mentioned. The noun tzeva (host, H6635A) in Biblical Hebrew can denote an army, a multitude, or an organized array of things — here it is grammatically construct, so its precise referent (what constitutes this "host") is not specified within the verse itself, only that it belongs to the heavens and earth just named.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tzeva'am ("their host") as ho kosmos autōn ("their order/arrangement"), using a Greek term (kosmos) that in this context denotes an ordered array rather than a military or numerous host. The Vulgate uses ornatus eorum ("their ornament/adornment"), a term emphasizing decorative completeness. The Hebrew tzeva (H6635A) itself carries a broader semantic range covering both hosts/armies and multitudes, which the Greek and Latin each narrow toward different nuances (order vs. adornment).