Genesis 3:23

Summary

Genesis 3:23 narrates that Yehovah Elohim sent the man out from the garden of Eden, with the stated purpose that he till the ground from which he had been taken. The verse closes the expulsion scene with a purpose clause and a relative clause recalling the man's origin from the soil.

Key words

• yeshalechehu ("he sent him out", H7971G) — piel stem intensifies the basic sense of shalach ("to send"), suggesting a forceful or deliberate sending; the pronominal suffix hu ("him") attaches the object directly to the verb.
• YHWH Elohim (H3068G / H0430G) — the compound name/title used as subject, identical to its use elsewhere in the Eden narrative.
• gan-'Eden ("garden of Eden", H1588M construct + H5731B) — construct chain naming the specific place from which the sending occurs.
• la'avod ("to till", H5647I) — qal infinitive introduced by the preposition la ("to"), expressing purpose: the reason for the sending out.
• luqqach ("he was taken", H3947G) — pual (passive intensive) perfect, marking completed passive action; no agent is named, only that the man "was taken" from the ground.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative vav on va-yeshalechehu, continuing the story sequence and placing the subject YHWH Elohim after the verb, as is typical in Hebrew narrative syntax (verb-subject order). The piel form of shalach carries more force than a simple "send," implying a deliberate, effected removal rather than a casual dismissal. The suffixed pronoun hu ("him") makes the man the direct object without a separate word.

The prepositional phrase mi-gan-'Eden ("from the garden of Eden") specifies the place of departure using the construct chain gan-'Eden ("garden of Eden"), the same construct used earlier in Genesis to name the location.

The purpose of the sending is given by the infinitive la'avod ("to till"), governing the object 'et-ha'adamah ("the ground"), marked with the untranslated object marker 'et (H0853) and the definite article ha ("the"). The final clause, introduced by the relative particle 'asher ("where/that"), uses the passive pual verb luqqach ("he was taken") to describe the ground's role as the man's point of origin, without naming who did the taking — the passive voice keeps focus on the ground and the man, not on an agent.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text names the place as gan-'Eden ("garden of Eden", H1588M + H5731B), treating "Eden" as a proper name. The LXX renders this as "ἐκ τοῦ παραδείσου τῆς τρυφῆς" ("from the garden of delight/luxury"), and the Vulgate similarly gives "de paradiso voluptatis" ("from the garden of pleasure") — both versions translate the sense of the place name rather than transliterating it as a proper noun, unlike the Hebrew. The BSB translation renders yeshalechehu as "banished," a stronger English term than the literal "sent out," reflecting the intensive piel stem but adding an interpretive nuance not explicit in the base gloss "he sent out."