Genesis 2:23

Summary

The man speaks upon seeing the woman, declaring her to be made of the same substance as himself: bone from his bones and flesh from his flesh. He then names her using a term derived from the word for "man," explaining that she was taken from man.

Key words

• zot ("this [one]", H2063) — demonstrative particle, repeated four times in the verse, each time pointing to the woman as the referent of the man's statements.
• 'etzem ("bone", H6106G) construct with 'atzamai ("my bones", H6106G) — a noun in construct chain with a pronominal suffix, forming "bone of my bones."
• basar ("flesh", H1320) construct with besari ("my flesh", H1320) — parallel construct chain to the previous phrase, mirroring its grammar.
• yiqqare' ("will be called", H7121H) — niphal (passive) imperfect, indicating an action done to the subject (she is named) with ongoing/future aspect.
• luqochah ("she was taken", H3947G) — pual (intensive passive) perfect, marking a completed passive action, distinct in stem from the niphal used for "called."

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav construction va-yomer ("and he said," H0559) attached to ha-'adam ("the man," H0120H), the standard formula introducing direct speech. The man's first statement uses the demonstrative zot twice in zot ha-pa'am ("this time"), an idiomatic phrase that marks a contrast — Hebrew grammar signals this as a new or different instance compared to what preceded it in the narrative sequence.

The two central clauses are built as mirrored construct chains: 'etzem me-'atzamai ("bone from my bones") and u-basar mi-besari ("and flesh from my flesh"). Each pairs a singular absolute noun with a plural or singular construct form carrying the first-person suffix -i ("my"), producing symmetrical grammatical structure between the two phrases.

The naming formula le-zot yiqqare' ishah ("to this one will be called woman") uses the niphal stem of qara' (H7121H), marking the naming as something that happens to the subject rather than an action she performs. The final clause, introduced by the particle ki ("for/that," H3588A), gives the grounds for the name: me-'ish luqochah zot ("from man this one was taken"), using the pual stem of laqach ("to take," H3947G), a passive verb form distinct from the niphal used earlier — the text employs two different passive-type stems within the verse.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew names her 'ishah (H0802G), phonetically resembling 'ish ("man," H0376G). The Vulgate preserves this wordplay by rendering 'ishah as Virago, built from Latin vir ("man"), and RV1909 similarly uses Varona from varón. The LXX and other cited translations (BSB, SBLIBRE) render the name simply as "woman"/Γυνή/"mujer," without a corresponding lexical link to their respective words for "man" (ἀνήρ, "hombre").