Ezekiel 31:8-9
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
8 In the garden of God,
no cedars could rival it,
No juniper could equal its branches,
no plane tree match its boughs.
No tree in the garden of God
could match its beauty.(A)
9 I made it beautiful
with abundant foliage,
So that all the trees in Eden
were envious of it.[a]
Genesis 2:8
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
8 The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east,[a] and placed there the man whom he had formed.(A)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2:8
Eden, in the east: the place names in vv. 8–14 are mostly derived from Mesopotamian geography (see note on vv. 10–14). Eden may be the name of a region in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), the term derived from the Sumerian word eden, “fertile plain.” A similar-sounding Hebrew word means “delight,” which may lie behind the Greek translation, “The Lord God planted a paradise [= pleasure park] in Eden.” It should be noted, however, that the garden was not intended as a paradise for the human race, but as a pleasure park for God; the man tended it for God. The story is not about “paradise lost.”
The garden in the precincts of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem seems to symbolize the garden of God (like gardens in other temples); it is apparently alluded to in Ps 1:3; 80:10; 92:14; Ez 47:7–12; Rev 22:1–2.
Genesis 2:15
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
15 The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.(A)
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