Genesis 2:22

Summary

The verse narrates that Yehovah Elohim built/formed the rib he had previously taken from the man into a woman, and then brought her to the man. Two consecutive narrative actions are reported: the shaping of the woman and her presentation to the man.

Key words

i.yi.Ven ("he built", H1129) — qal narrative verb; the base meaning of this root is architectural ("to build"), applied here to the forming of the woman from the rib.

tze.La' ("rib", H6763) — feminine singular noun, marked as definite direct object by 'et (H0853) and ha (H9009); it is the material component the action operates on.

la.Kach ("he had taken", H3947G) — qal perfect inside a relative clause introduced by 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A); the perfect aspect marks this taking as prior to and background for the main narrative line ("the rib which he had taken").

le.'i.Shah ("into a woman", H0802G + H9005) — feminine singular noun with the preposition le ("into/for"), indicating the result or purpose of the building: the rib becomes a woman.

y.vi.'E. ("he brought", H0935P) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb; the causative stem marks that the subject causes the woman to go/come to the man, i.e., he makes her arrive.

What the text says

The verse is built on two narrative verb forms connected by the narrative va (H9001): va-yiven ("and he built") and va-yavi' ("and he brought"), both marking sequential completed actions with Yehovah Elohim as subject throughout. Between these two main verbs sits a relative clause, 'asher laqach min-ha'adam ("which he had taken from the man"), whose verb laqach is a qal perfect rather than a narrative form — grammatically marking this taking as a prior, already-established fact referred back to, not a new step in the sequence. This creates a layered structure: the main narrative advances through "building" and "bringing," while the "taking" is recalled as background information already known from the preceding verse.

The object of the first verb, ha-tzela' ("the rib"), is marked definite and by the direct object particle 'et (H0853), showing it is a specific, previously introduced item. The phrase le-'ishah ("into a woman") uses the preposition le to indicate result: the rib is built into a woman, not simply "as" a woman. In the second clause, the hiphil form yavi' ("he brought") carries a causative sense — Yehovah Elohim causes her to come to the man — with a pronominal suffix -ha ("her") attached, referring back to the newly formed 'ishah.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders va-yiven ("he built", H1129) with ᾠκοδόμησεν, matching the architectural sense of "building." The Vulgate uses aedificavit ("he built"), likewise preserving the construction imagery. Some modern renderings (BSB, SBLIBRE) shift to "made" or restructure the sentence to foreground "from the rib" as the opening phrase, whereas the Hebrew, LXX, and Vulgate all keep the verb of building/making as the main verb with the rib as its direct object.