Genesis 2:6

Summary

The verse describes a natural process preceding human creation: something called 'ed ("water", H0108) rises from the earth and saturates the entire surface of the ground. The sentence uses two different Hebrew words for "earth/ground" and shifts verb forms mid-sentence to mark narrative sequence.

Key words

• 'Ed ("water", H0108) — the subject of the first clause; its precise referent (mist, subterranean water, spring) is not further specified by the noun itself.
• ya'aleh ("it came up", H5927G) — Qal imperfect, denoting an action in progress or repeated/durative rather than a single completed event.
• hishqah ("it watered", H8248G) — Hiphil (causative) verb, meaning the subject causes watering rather than simply "being wet"; it is in the sequential perfect, marking it as the next event after the imperfect verb.
• 'eretz ("earth", H0776G) — used in the first clause with the preposition min ("from", H4480A), marking the source of the 'ed.
• 'adamah ("ground", H0127G) — used in the second clause via the construct chain pe.nei-ha'adamah ("face of the ground"), marking the object that receives the watering.

What the text says

The verse has two clauses joined by ve- ("and"). The first clause places 'ed as subject with the Qal imperfect ya'aleh, indicating the rising is depicted as an ongoing or habitual action rather than a single past event — the grammar does not fix it as a one-time occurrence. The source is marked by min-ha'aretz ("from the earth"), using 'eretz rather than 'adamah.

The second clause switches to a sequential perfect, hishqah, built on the Hiphil (causative) stem: the subject is not merely present in water but actively causes the ground to be watered. The object is introduced by the direct object marker 'et, followed by the construct chain kol-pe.nei-ha'adamah ("all the face of the ground"), a phrase that pairs the construct noun pe.nei ("surface of") with 'adamah. The use of 'adamah here, distinct from the 'eretz of the first clause, means the Hebrew text does not repeat the same word for "earth/ground" across the two clauses, a distinction not preserved when both are rendered by a single term such as "earth" or "ground" in translation.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew 'ed (H0108) is rendered as πηγὴ ("spring/fountain") in the LXX and as fons ("spring/fountain") in the Vulgate, both pointing to a water source rather than atmospheric mist. The Spanish RV1909 and SBLIBRE instead render it as "vapor" ("un vapor"), following an interpretation of 'ed as mist rather than a spring. The BSB uses "springs" (plural), aligning with the LXX/Vulgate "spring" reading rather than the "mist" option.