“So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable help-meet was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.”-Genesis 2:20-22
I think this is a post that wives, actually all women, whether married or not, are going to enjoy.
In Genesis verses 20-22, we have the famous story of how God took a rib from Adam and formed Eve.
The word for man in Hebrew is “Ish” and the word for woman is “Ish-ah”.
The “ah” part of “Ish-ah” means literally “from” or “out of”.
So God created woman from man because God decided that man needed a “help-meet”.
Now to be honest with you, “help-meet” is a crappy translation from the original Hebrew.
The Hebrew word for help-meet is EZER KENEGDO.
KENEGDO means “opposite him”, “alongside him” or “a counterpart to him”.
However, using the word “help” for EZER gives off the idea that the woman is essentially subservient to the man.
What should be noted is that when this word is used in other parts of Scripture, it is usually used in a strong military context and refers to a situation of strong intervention on behalf of someone.
So you can throw out this idea of a Godly woman being some servile person meekly responding to every beck and call of her husband.
This also kind of ties in with my post about the first human that God created being androgynous (genderless) who was later split in half to become a man and a woman.
Please post the other uses in Scripture of the phrase “ezer kenigdo” especially as it applies to military situations. I find this intriguing, because in the military, men speak of the comradeship of their cohorts, knowing they are there to help each other through a battle (not that I countenance any aspect of war besides defense); if partners were to be thought of in that way, it would add much to the understanding of relationship.
I’m glad you found this interesting. I’m not sure when I’ll have an opportunity to expound more on this term. Possibly when I get it into the book of Joshua. Be blessed and shalom!