Genesis 5:2

Summary

Genesis 5:2 states that the human beings were created as zakhar ("male", H2145) and neqevah ("female", H5347), that they were blessed, and that they were given the name 'adam ("humankind", H0120G) on the day of their creation.

Key words

• za.Khar ("male", H2145) — masculine singular adjective, paired with the next word to express a dual category rather than a single individual.
• ne.ke.Vah ("female", H5347) — feminine singular adjective; together with zakhar forms a merism (male and female) summarizing the whole of humankind.
• be.ra.'A...m ("he created them", H1254A) — qal perfect verb with the 3rd person masculine plural suffix "them" (H9038) attached directly to the verb, showing a single completed act of creation applied to both.
• y.Va.rekh ("he blessed", H1288) — piel narrative verb (vav-consecutive), marking the next sequential action after creation; the piel stem is often used for intensive or effective action.
• hi.Ba.re.'A...m ("they were created", H1254A) — niphal infinitive form of the same root used in bera'am, now in a passive/reflexive sense ("in their being created"), used with the preposition be ("on/in", H9003) to form a temporal clause "on the day of their being created."

What the text says

The verse opens without a subject noun stated explicitly — the subject ("he," referring to the creator introduced earlier in the chapter) is embedded in the verb form bera'am, "he created them." The two nouns zakhar and neqevah stand before the verb, functioning as a compound direct object description: the entity created is characterized as "male and female." The same root bara' ("to create", H1254A) appears twice in the verse — once in the qal perfect (bera'am, "he created them") describing the initial act, and once in the niphal infinitive (hibbare'am, "their being created") describing the temporal circumstance of the naming. This repetition of the same root in two different verbal stems (active qal vs. passive niphal) creates a grammatical echo: the act of creating and the day of being created are linguistically tied together.

The narrative continues with two vav-consecutive verbs, yevarekh ("he blessed", piel) and yiqra' ("he called", qal), both carrying the 3rd person masculine singular subject and moving the narrative forward in sequence: creation, then blessing, then naming. The name given, 'adam, is attached to shem ("name", H8034) in a construct relationship — "the name of them" — followed by the noun 'adam itself, which restates the name assigned.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders bera'am ("he created them") with ἐποίησεν ("he made"), using a verb of making rather than one specifically tied to creation as in the Hebrew bara'. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew more closely with creavit ("he created"), matching the semantic field of bara' used twice in the Hebrew text. The BSB and SBLIBRE render 'adam as "man" and "Humanidad" ("Humanity") respectively, reflecting the same Hebrew word 'adam but choosing different English/Spanish equivalents for its collective sense.