But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
6. there went up ] or “there used to go up,” i.e. periodically. The frequentative idea of the verb is given in the LXX , Lat. ascendebat.
a mist ] Heb. ’d, a word found elsewhere in the O.T. only in Job 36:27, where it is rendered “vapour.” Here the meaning is not certain: the versions (LXX : Lat. fons: Targum “cloud”) reflect the doubt. The English versions follow the Targum. Recently, Assyriologists have compared the Babylonian d, meaning a “flood” or “overflowing.” It is possible that the rendering “spring” or “stream” maybe more accurate than “mist”; that in Job 36:27 ’d may denote the “source” of the waters above the heavens; and that here it may refer to the hidden source of the rivers of the world. No account is given of the origin of rain.
watered ] Literally, “gave to drink”; an expression better suited to a “stream” than to a “mist”: cf. Gen 2:10, where it is used of a river. “The ground,” the face of which was watered by it, was “the cultivable soil” ( admah).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 6. There went up a mist] This passage appears to have greatly embarrassed many commentators. The plain meaning seems to be this, that the aqueous vapours, ascending from the earth, and becoming condensed in the colder regions of the atmosphere, fell back upon the earth in the form of dews, and by this means an equal portion of moisture was distributed to the roots of plants, &c. As Moses had said, Ge 2:5, that the Lord had not caused it to rain upon the earth, he probably designed to teach us, in Ge 2:6, how rain is produced, viz., by the condensation of the aqueous vapours, which are generally through the heat of the sun and other causes raised to a considerable height in the atmosphere, where, meeting with cold air, the watery particles which were before so small and light that they could float in the air, becoming condensed, i.e., many drops being driven into one, become too heavy to be any longer suspended, and then, through their own gravity, fall down in the form which we term rain.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
There went up, from time to time, by Gods appointment, a vapour, or cloud, which going up into the air, was turned into rain, and fell down again to the earth from whence it arose; whereby the earth was softened, and disposed both to the nourishment of those plants or trees that were created, and to the production of new plants in a natural and ordinary way. But these words may be otherwise understood, the copulative and, here rendered but, being put for the disjunctive
or, as it is Exo 21:15,17; Job 6:22; 8:3, and in other places. Or, the negative particle not may be understood out of the foregoing clause, as it is usual in the Hebrew language, as Psa 1:5; 9:17; 44:19; 50:8; Isa 28:27-28. And so these words may be joined with the foregoing, and both translated in this manner,
There was no rain, nor a man to till the ground, or (or nor, for both come to one thing) so much as
a mist which went up from the earth, and watered (as afterwards was usual and natural) the whole face of the ground.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
But there went up a mist from the earth,…. After the waters had been drained off from it, and it was warmed by the body of light and heat created on the first day, which caused a vapour, which went up as a mist, and descended:
and watered the whole face of the ground; or earth, and so supplied the place of rain, until that was given: though rather the words may be rendered disjunctively, “or there went up” g; that is, before a mist went up, when as yet there was none; not so much as a mist to water the earth, and plants and herbs were made to grow; and so Saadiah reads them negatively, “nor did a mist go up”; there were no vapours exhaled to form clouds, and produce rain, and yet the whole earth on the third day was covered with plants and herbs; and this is approved of by Kimchi and Ben Melech.
g “aut vapor ascendens”, Junius & Tremellius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(6) A mist.This mist, as we learn from Job. 36:27, where the same word is translated vapour, is the measure and material of the rain, and thus there was already preparation for the Divine method of watering the earth, and making it capable of producing food for man. But, as we gather from Genesis 1, vast periods of indefinite length intervened between the first rain and the creation of man; and in each of them numerous series of animals were introduced, adapted each to the geologic condition of its time. All this now is rapidly passed over, and three points only lightly touched: namely, first, the earth saturated with vapour, and unfit for man; secondly, the vapour condensing into rain, and the earth growing fit for man; thirdly, man.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. A mist , a mist, a vapour . This first watering of the whole face of the ground was accomplished by an ascending vapour . Here is no mention of rain falling; but rather of mist going up. Perhaps, however, the one thought is designed to imply the other. The sacred writer thus also intimates how the vast reservoir of “waters above the firmament” (Gen 1:7) were thenceforth to be supplied.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 2:6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
Ver. 6. But there went up a mist. ] The matter of rain: and hereby God tempered the mortar whereof he would make man, as he did the clay with spittle, wherewith he cured the blind. Joh 9:6
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
But = and.
mist = no mist . . . to water. The last of two or three negatives not necessary. Must be supplied by Figure of speech Ellipsis (App-6. a), as in Deu 33:6. 1Sa 2:3. Psa 9:18; Psa 38:1; Psa 75:5. Pro 24:12; Pro 25:27. Isa 38:18, &c.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
there went up a mist: or, a mist which went up, Gen 2:6
Reciprocal: Job 36:27 – he Psa 135:7 – He causeth Isa 26:19 – thy dew
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 2:6. There went up At certain times, it seems, as God appointed; a mist or vapour from the earth Issuing from the abyss, or great deep of water in its bowels; (see Gen 7:14;) and watered the whole face of the ground Not with rain, but with dew. By this the earth was softened and fitted to nourish the plants of all kinds already created, and the seeds and roots of these that they might produce new plants.