And now we arrive at a most interesting section of Chapter 2. The Lord God determined to furnish Adam with a helpmeet. He caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, removed one of his ribs, closed up the flesh, and with this rib He made a woman, and presented her to the man. It is noticeable that the Hebrew word here translated rib is in every other case translated, no less than nineteen times, as side.
The woman was thus formed, the complement of man. We can understand how necessary the affection and companionship of woman is to man, and man to woman, as the two together make one whole, the one not complete without the other.
When Adam came out of his deep sleep, he was greeted by his fair companion, a vision of rare beauty, a woman, God's masterpiece, a wife, a helpmeet, a companion, a sharer of his life.
Adam recognized this when he said, " This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh " (Gen. 2:2323And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. (Genesis 2:23)). How intimate the relationship. Taken out of man (Ish) she was called woman (Isha). Marriage is instituted for man and woman's comfort and joy, and for the procreation of the human race. In Gen. 1 man and woman are exhorted to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, to subdue it, to have dominion over it, Adam being head over all. A man is to leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, one in affection and interest, each the complement of the other.
So the narrative ends with man and woman naked and unashamed, so pure and innocent were they.
So ends the story of man upon this earth before sin came in with all its train of suffering and sorrow.