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11 The name of the first is Pishon; it runs through[a] the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is pure;[b] pearls[c] and lapis lazuli[d] are also there). 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it runs through[e] the entire land of Cush.[f] 14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it runs along the east side of Assyria.[g] The fourth river is the Euphrates.

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 2:11 tn Heb “it is that which goes around.”
  2. Genesis 2:12 tn Heb “good.”
  3. Genesis 2:12 tn The Hebrew term translated “pearls” may be a reference to resin (cf. NIV “aromatic resin”) or another precious stone (cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV “bdellium”).
  4. Genesis 2:12 tn Or “onyx.”
  5. Genesis 2:13 tn Heb “it is that which goes around.”
  6. Genesis 2:13 sn Cush. In the Bible the Hebrew word כּוּשׁ (kush, “Kush”) often refers to Ethiopia (so KJV, CEV), but here it must refer to a region in Mesopotamia, the area of the later Cassite dynasty of Babylon. See Gen 10:7-10 as well as E. A. Speiser, Genesis (AB), 20. The man Cush had a son named Havilah (see 2:11: “land of Havilah”). Another son was Nimrod, the centers of whose kingdom were in Babylon, Ninevah, and similarly placed cities. Eden was in the East, which was where the headwaters of the four rivers were.
  7. Genesis 2:14 tn Heb “Asshur” (so NEB, NIV).