Genesis 2:16

Summary

The verse reports that Yehovah Elohim gave a command to the man concerning what he may eat: he is permitted, with emphasis, to eat from every tree of the garden. The sentence is structured as narration followed by direct speech.

Key words

• va-yeTzav ("and he commanded", H6680) — piel narrative verb; the piel stem marks an intensive/authoritative act of commanding, and the narrative vav places it as the next event in sequence.
• 'al- ("to", H5921A) + ha-'aDam ("the man", H0120H) — the preposition with the definite article marks the man as the recipient/addressee of the command.
• le-Mor ("saying", H0559) — infinitive construct introducing direct speech, the standard hinge between narration and quoted words.
• mi-Kol ("from any", H3605) construct + 'etz-ha-Gan ("tree of the garden", H6086/H1588) — a construct chain specifying the scope of what may be eaten: any tree belonging to the garden.
• 'aKhol toKhel ("certainly you will eat", H0398 + H0398) — infinitive absolute followed by the imperfect of the same verb; this doubling reinforces the verbal idea, expressed here as "you will surely eat" / "you may eat freely."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative verb va-yeTzav ("and he commanded"), whose piel stem carries an intensive nuance beyond a simple statement — it frames the act as a formal directive. The subject is the double name Yehovah 'Elohim, and the object of the command is introduced by 'al- ("to/concerning") plus ha-'aDam ("the man"), marking him as the one addressed. The infinitive le-Mor ("saying") then opens the quoted speech that follows.

The content of the command begins with a construct chain: mi-Kol ("from any/all") governs 'etz-ha-Gan ("tree of the garden"), so the phrase reads literally "from any tree of the garden." This construct structure ties "tree" grammatically to "garden," identifying the scope of trees under discussion as those within the garden specifically.

The final clause, 'aKhol toKhel, pairs an infinitive absolute with a finite imperfect of the same root, H0398 ("to eat"). This grammatical doubling — infinitive absolute plus finite verb of the same root — is a construction that reinforces or intensifies the verbal action itself, here rendered in English translations as "you will surely eat" or "you may eat freely," indicating that the permission is being emphasized rather than merely stated.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders le-Mor ("saying") with λέγων and phrases the permission as "ἀπὸ παντὸς ξύλου... βρώσει φάγῃ" (future tense with dative noun "βρώσει"), reflecting the same infinitive-plus-verb intensifying pattern as the Hebrew 'aKhol toKhel. The Vulgate's "comede" is a single imperative-like form without the doubled construction found in the Hebrew. The Hebrew explicitly names both Yehovah (H3068G) and 'Elohim (H0430G) as subject, while the Vulgate's "præcepitque ei" uses only a pronoun without repeating a divine name at this point in its clause.