📖 Dictionary

Humankind / the human; a personal name only later. Puns on adamah, 'ground' — the groundling from the ground. → first discussed at 2:7

The ground, soil, arable earth — the stuff the human is formed from, cursed in Eden, and blessed through Abram. → first discussed at 2:7

Dust — the stuff humanity is formed from and returns to (2:7, 3:19); the same humble material later measures Abram's uncountable offspring (13:16). → first discussed at 2:7

'Crafty' and 'naked' — nearly identical Hebrew words; the pun straddles the Genesis 2/3 chapter break. → first discussed at 3:1

'Create' — a verb reserved for God alone in the Bible; marks the thresholds: cosmos (1:1), animal life (1:21), humanity (1:27). → first discussed at 1:21

Covenant. First promised at 6:18, first enacted (with all flesh, unconditionally) in Genesis 9 — the word that structures the rest of the Bible. → first discussed at 6:18

Violence, lawless wrong — the earth's indictment before the flood, named twice. → first discussed at 6:11

Favor, grace. First appearance: 'Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD' — and chen reverses the letters of Noach. → first discussed at 6:8

'God' — plural in form, singular in verb: standard Biblical Hebrew for the one God. → first discussed at 1:1

'A helper corresponding to him' — ezer usually describes GOD helping Israel (strength, not servitude); kenegdo = a matching counterpart. Source of the misleading 'helpmeet.' → first discussed at 2:18

Mighty man, warrior. Used of the Nephilim's era (6:4) and of Nimrod, the first post-flood empire-builder. → first discussed at 6:4

'Look! / Behold' — the attention word; this translation renders it 'look' throughout. → first discussed at 1:29

To walk about, back and forth — the walking-WITH-God verb: God in the garden (3:8), Enoch (5:22,24), Noah (6:9). → first discussed at 3:8

Painful toil — the woman's pain and the man's toil in Eden's sentences; the same root reaches God's own grieved heart at 6:6. → first discussed at 3:16

A disc, circle — hence 'plain': the round, well-watered Jordan valley Lot chooses (13:10-12); elsewhere the same word names a 'talent,' a round ingot of silver or gold. → first discussed at 13:10

'Go — you yourself': the emphatic doubled call of Abram; the third parashah takes its name from it. → first discussed at 12:1

THE flood — a technical term used only of this event (plus Psalm 29:10), never of ordinary flooding. → first discussed at 6:17

Kind, sort — a farmer's word, not a taxonomy; behind every 'of its own kind.' → first discussed at 1:11

A gathering (of water) — the word behind the seas' naming, and later Judaism's ritual bath. → first discussed at 1:10

Appointed times — the festival-calendar word; what the sun and moon are installed to mark. → first discussed at 1:14

Comfort — and regret. Noah's name-hope (5:29) returns as God's regret (6:6): one root, opposite moods. → first discussed at 5:29

To carry, bear, lift — one root doing three jobs in Genesis 13: the land 'could not bear' Abram and Lot together (13:6), then each of them 'lifts up' his eyes (13:10, 13:14) to opposite ends. → first discussed at 13:6

A living creature/being — fish, birds, animals, and humans alike; not an immaterial 'soul' inside a body. → first discussed at 1:20

Beings 'on the earth in those days' (6:4); meaning unknown (possibly 'fallen ones'); LXX rendered 'giants.' Recur only at Numbers 13:33. → first discussed at 6:4

Burnt offering — literally an 'ascending' offering: the whole animal goes up in smoke. First at Noah's altar. → first discussed at 8:20

To separate — Genesis 13's hinge verb: Abram proposes it (13:9), Lot enacts it (13:11), and the renewed land promise arrives precisely 'after' it happens (13:14). → first discussed at 13:9

To make holy, set apart — its first biblical object is a day, the sabbath. → first discussed at 2:3

A bow — the weapon; Hebrew has no separate word for 'rainbow.' God hangs his war-bow in the clouds. → first discussed at 9:13

The vault of the sky — from a root meaning 'hammered out'; LXX stereōma → Vulgate firmamentum → 'firmament.' → first discussed at 1:6

Wind, breath, spirit — hovering at creation (1:2), sent to end the flood (8:1); one word, three English registers. → first discussed at 1:2

To ruin — the flood's boomerang verb: the earth ruined itself; God completes the ruin (6:11-13). → first discussed at 6:11

To keep, guard, watch over — the human's garden vocation (2:15), disowned by Cain ('my brother's keeper?', 4:9). → first discussed at 2:15

The heavens / the sky — one Hebrew word for both English registers. → first discussed at 1:8

Name — what Babel grasps at ('let us make a name,' 11:4) and God gives ('I will make your name great,' 12:2). Also Noah's son Shem. → first discussed at 11:4

Swarming things — the cognate behind 'swarm with swarms' (1:20). → first discussed at 1:20

To crush / strike at — the rare verb (3× in the Bible) of the serpent's head and the offspring's heel. → first discussed at 3:15

Sea-beast; elsewhere serpent or dragon — the 'chaos monsters' listed as ordinary day-five creations. → first discussed at 1:21

The deep — the primeval ocean of 1:2, whose springs burst open again at 7:11. → first discussed at 1:2

Desire — paired with mashal ('rule/master') at both 3:16 and 4:7, three verses apart in the text's own logic. → first discussed at 3:16

The ark — a box or chest, not a ship (no sail, rudder, or helm); its only other use is Moses' basket (Exodus 2:3). → first discussed at 6:14

'Formless and empty' — the rhyming pair describing the pre-creation earth. → first discussed at 1:2

'Generations' — Genesis's own structural marker; ten toldot headings organize the book (2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10; 11:27; …). → first discussed at 2:4

Side — everywhere else a structural side (tabernacle, ark, temple), never a rib bone; this translation's 'side, not rib' at 2:21 rests on that usage. → first discussed at 2:21

Image / likeness — a king's image stood for his authority in his provinces; humanity bears God's. Restated post-flood as the ground of the first law (9:6). → first discussed at 1:26

To know — including Hebrew's own euphemism for intimacy ('the man knew his wife,' 4:1). → first discussed at 4:1

The personal name of God, first at 2:4 — printed 'the LORD' (small caps) by longstanding convention; 'Jehovah' in the NWT. → first discussed at 2:4

To remember — divine remembering that acts: 'God remembered Noah' turns the flood (8:1); God looks at the bow 'to remember' (9:16). → first discussed at 8:1