Genesis 2:18 - Man and Woman in the Garden (2024)

Verse (Click for Chapter)

New International Version
The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”New Living Translation
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”English Standard Version
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”Berean Standard Bible
The LORD God also said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a suitable helper.”King James Bible
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.New King James Version
And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”New American Standard Bible
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”NASB 1995
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”NASB 1977
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”Legacy Standard Bible
Then Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”Amplified Bible
Now the LORD God said, “It is not good (beneficial) for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper [one who balances him—a counterpart who is] suitable and complementary for him.”Christian Standard Bible
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him.”Holman Christian Standard Bible
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.”American Standard Version
And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And LORD JEHOVAH God said, “It is not good for Adam to be alone. I shall make a helper for him like himself.”Brenton Septuagint Translation
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone, let us make for him a help suitable to him.Contemporary English Version
The LORD God said, "It isn't good for the man to live alone. I will make a suitable partner for him." Douay-Rheims Bible
And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself. English Revised Version
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.GOD'S WORD® Translation
Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is right for him."Good News Translation
Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to live alone. I will make a suitable companion to help him." International Standard Version
Later, the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make the woman to be an authority corresponding to him." JPS Tanakh 1917
And the LORD God said: 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.'Literal Standard Version
And YHWH God says, “[It is] not good for the man to be alone; I make him a helper as his counterpart.”Majority Standard Bible
The LORD God also said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a suitable helper.”New American Bible
The LORD God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him.NET Bible
The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion for him who corresponds to him."New Revised Standard Version
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”New Heart English Bible
And God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."Webster's Bible Translation
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him a help meet for him.World English Bible
Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Young's Literal Translation
And Jehovah God saith, 'Not good for the man to be alone, I do make to him an helper -- as his counterpart.'Additional Translations ...

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) It is not good . . . --In these words we have the Divine appointment of marriage, and also the declaration that the female is subsequent in order of production to the male, and formed from him. In Genesis 1:27; Genesis 5:2, the creation of male and female is represented as having been simultaneous. She is described as "a help meet for him:" Heb., a help as his front, his reflected image, or, as the Syriac translates it, a helper similar to him. The happiness of marriage is based, not upon the woman being just the same thing as the man, but upon her being one in whom he sees his image and counterpart.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - In anticipation of the ensuing narrative of the temptation and the fall, the historian, having depicted man's settlement in Eden, advances to complete his dramatis personae by the introduction upon the scene of the animals and woman. In the preliminary creation record (7-27) it is simply stated that God created man, male and female; there is a complete absence of details as to the Divine modus operandi in the execution of these, his last and greatest works. It is one object, among others, of the second portion of the history to supply those details. With regard to man (Adam), an account of his formation, at once minute and exhaustive, has been given in the preceding verses (7-17); now, with like attention to antecedent and concomitant circ*mstances and events, the sacred penman adds a description of the time, reason, manner, and result of the formation of woman. And the Lord God said, It is not good for man to be alone. While the animals were produced either in swarms (as the fishes) or in pairs (as the birds and beasts), man was created as an individual; his partner, by a subsequent operation of creative power, being produced from himself. With the wild phantasies and gross speculations of some theosophists, as to whether, prior to the creation of Eve, Adam was androgynic (Bohme), or simply vir in potentia, out of which state he passed the moment the woman stood by his side (Ziegler), a devout exegesis is not required to intermeddle. Neither is it needful to wonder how God should pronounce that to be not good which he had previously (Genesis 1:31) affirmed was good. The Divine judgment of which the preceding chapter speaks was expressed at the completion of man's creation; this, while that creation was in progress. For the new-made man to have been left without a partner would, in the estimation of Jehovah Elohim, have been for him a condition of being which, if not necessarily bad in itself, yet, considering his intellectual and social nature, "would eventually have passed over from the negative not good, or a manifest want, into the positive not good, or a hurtful impropriety"' (Lange). "It was not good for man to be alone; not, as certain foolish Rabbis conceited, lest he should imagine himself to be the lord of the world, or as though no man could live without a woman, which is contrary to Scripture; but in respect of

(1) mutual society and comfort,

(2) the propagation of the race,