Genesis 2:11
New International Version
The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

New Living Translation
The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found.

English Standard Version
The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

Berean Standard Bible
The name of the first river is Pishon; it winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

King James Bible
The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

New King James Version
The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

New American Standard Bible
The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

NASB 1995
The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

NASB 1977
The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

Legacy Standard Bible
The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that went around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

Amplified Bible
The first [river] is named Pishon; it flows around the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

Christian Standard Bible
The name of the first is Pishon, which flows through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
The name of the first is Pishon, which flows through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

American Standard Version
The name of the first is Pishon: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
The name of one is Pyshon, that goes around to all the land of Khaweela, where there is gold;

Brenton Septuagint Translation
The name of the one, Phisom, this it is which encircles the whole land of Evilat, where there is gold.

Contemporary English Version
The first one is the Pishon River that flows through the land of Havilah,

Douay-Rheims Bible
The name of the one is Phison: that is it which compasseth all the land of Hevilath, where gold groweth.

English Revised Version
The name of the first is Pishon: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

GOD'S WORD® Translation
The name of the first river is Pishon. This is the one that winds throughout Havilah, where there is gold.

Good News Translation
The first river is the Pishon; it flows around the country of Havilah. (

International Standard Version
The name of the first one is Pishon—it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

JPS Tanakh 1917
The name of the first is Pishon; that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

Literal Standard Version
the name of the first [is] Pison, it [is] that which is surrounding the whole land of Havilah where the gold [is],

Majority Standard Bible
The name of the first river is Pishon; it winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

New American Bible
The name of the first is the Pishon; it is the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

NET Bible
The name of the first is Pishon; it runs through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

New Revised Standard Version
The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

New Heart English Bible
The name of the first is Pishon; this is the one which goes around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

Webster's Bible Translation
The name of the first is Pison, which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

World English Bible
The name of the first is Pishon: it flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

Young's Literal Translation
the name of the one is Pison, it is that which is surrounding the whole land of the Havilah where the gold is,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Man and Woman in the Garden
10Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it branched into four headwaters: 11The name of the first river is Pishon; it winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12And the gold of that land is pure, and bdellium and onyx are found there.…

Cross References
Genesis 2:12
And the gold of that land is pure, and bdellium and onyx are found there.

Genesis 2:13
The name of the second river is Gihon; it winds through the whole land of Cush.

Genesis 25:18
Ishmael's descendants settled from Havilah to Shur, which is near the border of Egypt as you go toward Asshur. And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers.

Hosea 11:12
Ephraim surrounds Me with lies, the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One.


Treasury of Scripture

The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasses the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

Havilah.

Genesis 10:7,29
And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan…

Genesis 25:18
And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren.

1 Samuel 15:7
And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.

Jump to Previous
Compasseth Entire First Flows Goes Gold Round Surrounding Surrounds Whole Winds
Jump to Next
Compasseth Entire First Flows Goes Gold Round Surrounding Surrounds Whole Winds
Genesis 2
1. The first Sabbath.
4. Further details concerning the manner of creation.
8. The planting of the garden of Eden, and its situation;
15. man is placed in it; and the tree of knowledge forbidden.
18. The animals are named by Adam.
21. The making of woman, and the institution of marriage.














(11, 12) The name of the first is Pison.--"The full-flowing" (Gesenius), or "free-streaming" (Frst). Neither derivation has much authority for it in the Hebrew language, and we must wait for the true explanation till the cuneiform inscriptions have been more thoroughly examined. As two of the four rivers of Paradise rise in Armenia, so we must probably seek the other two there; but the conjectures of commentators have thus far suggested no probable identification of this stream.

Compasseth.--This word, without strictly meaning to go round, gives the idea of a devious course (comp. 1Samuel 7:16; Song of Solomon 3:3), as if the river had now reached a level plain.

Havilah may mean sandy land (Deutsch), or circuit region. There seems to have been more than one country of this name; but the most probable is that in South-Western Arabia, afterwards colonised by the Joktanites (Genesis 10:29), which this river skirted rather than traversed. But we know of no such river, rising in Armenia or elsewhere, which answers to this description now. Besides gold of great purity, pronounced emphatically "good," this land produced" bdellium," a scented gum, to which manna is compared (Numbers 11:7), though the meaning even there is uncertain.

Instead of bedolach, bdellium, the Syriac reads berulche, that is, the same word in the plural, but with d instead of r. These two letters being very similar, not merely in the square Hebrew alphabet now in use, but in the original Samaritan characters, are constantly interchanged in manuscripts; and as berulche means pearls, the sense agrees better with the other productions of Havilah, gold and onyx stones. As bedolach is a quadriliteral, while Hebrew words have only three root letters, we must look to the Accadi an language for its true signification, if this be really the right reading. . . .

Verses 11, 12. - The name of the first (river is) Pishon, or "the full-flowing." This is the first of those marks by which the river, when discovered, must be identified. It was palpably a broad-bosomed stream. A second is derived from the region through which it flows. That is it which compasseth (not necessarily surrounding, but skirting in a circular or circuitous fashion - Numbers 21:4; Judges 11:8) the whole land of Havilah. Havilah itself is described by three of its productions. Where there is gold. I.e. it is a gold-producing country. And the gold of that land is good. Of the purest quality and largest quantity. There also is bdellium. Literally bedo-lach, which the manna was declared to resemble (Exodus 17:14; Numbers 11:7). The LXX., supposing it to be a precious stone, translate it by ἄνθραξ ιν the present passage, and by κρυστάλλος in Numbers 11:7 - a view supported by the Jewish Rabbis and Gesenius. The majority of modern interpreters espouse the opinion of Josephus, that it was an odorous and costly gum indigenous to India, Arabia, Babylonia, and Bactriana. The third production is the onyx (shoham, from a root signifying to be pale or delicate in color, like the finger-nails), variously conjectured to be the beryl, onyx, sardonyx, sardius, or emerald. From this description it appears that Havilah must be sought for among the gold-producing countries of Asia. Now among the sons of Joktan or primitive Arabs (Genesis 10:29) - "whose dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest, unto Sephar, a mount of the east" - are Ophir and Havilah, whence Gesenius concludes that India, including Arabia, is meant. Other countries have their advocates, such as Arabia Felix, Susiana, Colchis, etc.; and other rivers, such as the Ganges (Josephus, Eusebius), the Phasis (Reland, Jahn, Rosenmüller, Winer), the Indus (Schulthess, Kalisch).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
The name
שֵׁ֥ם (šêm)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 8034: A name

of the first [river]
הָֽאֶחָ֖ד (hā·’e·ḥāḏ)
Article | Number - masculine singular
Strong's 259: United, one, first

[is] Pishon;
פִּישׁ֑וֹן (pî·šō·wn)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 6376: Pishon -- one of the rivers of Eden

it
ה֣וּא (hū)
Pronoun - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1931: He, self, the same, this, that, as, are

winds through
הַסֹּבֵ֗ב (has·sō·ḇêḇ)
Article | Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 5437: To turn about, go around, surround

the whole
כָּל־ (kāl-)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

land
אֶ֣רֶץ (’e·reṣ)
Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 776: Earth, land

of Havilah,
הַֽחֲוִילָ֔ה (ha·ḥă·wî·lāh)
Article | Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 2341: Havilah -- a son of Cush, also a son of Joktan, also territories of uncertain location

where
אֲשֶׁר־ (’ă·šer-)
Pronoun - relative
Strong's 834: Who, which, what, that, when, where, how, because, in order that

there [is]
שָׁ֖ם (šām)
Adverb
Strong's 8033: There, then, thither

gold.
הַזָּהָֽב׃ (haz·zā·hāḇ)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 2091: Gold, something gold-colored, as oil, a clear sky


Links
Genesis 2:11 NIV
Genesis 2:11 NLT
Genesis 2:11 ESV
Genesis 2:11 NASB
Genesis 2:11 KJV

Genesis 2:11 BibleApps.com
Genesis 2:11 Biblia Paralela
Genesis 2:11 Chinese Bible
Genesis 2:11 French Bible
Genesis 2:11 Catholic Bible

OT Law: Genesis 2:11 The name of the first is Pishon: (Gen. Ge Gn)
Genesis 2:10
Top of Page
Top of Page