Genesis 2:19

Summary

Yehovah God forms every animal of the field and every bird of the heavens from the ground, and brings them to the man to see what he will call each one. Whatever the man calls each living creature becomes its name.

Key words

• va-yyitzer ("and he formed", H3335G) — qal narrative verb, continuing the sequence of actions begun in the preceding verses; the same root used for the shaping of the man in Genesis 2:7.
• min-ha'adamah ("from the ground", H4480A + H0127G) — preposition plus definite noun, marking the material source of the animals, paralleling the man's own origin "from the ground."
• chayyat ha-sadeh ("animal of the field", H2416C + H7704G) — construct chain; chayyat is in construct form, meaning it depends grammatically on "the field" to form the compound expression "animal-of-the-field."
• la-re'ot ("to see", H7200G) — qal infinitive introduced by the preposition li- ("to"), expressing purpose: the reason the animals are brought is "in order to see."
• nefesh chayyah ("a living creature", H5315K + H2416A) — noun plus adjective in feminine singular agreement, the same phrase used elsewhere in Genesis 1 for animate beings, here applied to what the man names.

What the text says

The verse is built as two chained narrative actions marked by the vav-consecutive: va-yyitzer ("and he formed") and later va-yyave' ("and he brought", H0935P). The subject Yehovah 'Elohim performs both actions without interruption, first shaping the creatures min-ha'adamah ("from the ground") — the same source material used for the man in the earlier verse — and then bringing them 'el-ha'adam ("to the man"). The direct objects are structured through two construct chains joined by the conjunction ve- ("and"): kol-chayyat ha-sadeh ("every animal of the field") and, marked separately by the object marker 'et (H0853, untranslated), kol-'of ha-shamayim ("every bird of the heavens").

The purpose clause lir'ot mah-yiqra'-lo ("to see what he will call it") uses the infinitive construct lir'ot to express intention, followed by the interrogative mah ("what") and the imperfect verb yiqra' ("he will call"), which carries a forward-looking, undetermined sense — the outcome is not predetermined by the narrator. The final clause repeats the same imperfect verb yiqra' in a relative construction introduced by 'asher ("that/who"), stating that whatever ha'adam calls each nefesh chayyah ("living creature"), that becomes shemo ("its name") — a noun in construct form bound to the pronominal suffix -o ("its").

Differences between versions

The LXX adds eti ("still/yet") after ho theos, a temporal marker not present in the Hebrew text as given. The Vulgate renders the purpose clause as "ut videret quid vocaret ea" ("that he might see what he would call them"), using a subjunctive that expresses the same forward-looking sense as the Hebrew imperfect yiqra'. Where the Hebrew uses two separate construct chains for "animal of the field" and "bird of the heavens" connected by ve-'et, the LXX and Vulgate render both as flowing coordinate lists without marking the direct-object particle 'et, since Greek and Latin do not require a separate untranslated object marker.