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Genesis 2:15

创世记 2:15

The Passage

The LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.

In the other language

耶和华神将那人安置在伊甸园，使他修理，看守。

Theme

Work before the fall

Bring a question to this passage

Many readers arrive here from a real question. These are reflections for how this passage speaks to the questions people bring most often — not an answer about what will happen, but an invitation to sit with it slowly.

How do I face this season of pressure at work?

In the garden, the human task is to cultivate and keep: to help something grow and to care for what is entrusted. This verse does not address workplace pressure directly, but its paired verbs offer a way to examine your responsibilities. Pressure often makes producing more seem like the only thing that counts. Keeping asks another question: what needs tending, protection, or careful maintenance? Neither word requires you to imagine yourself responsible for everything. You might bring your actual tasks before God, noticing where useful effort has become an attempt to control every result. Which part of this day is yours to cultivate and keep?

Carry thisFaithful work includes tending, not only producing something new.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

I want to learn to love better in this relationship.

Cultivating and keeping are the two tasks given to the man in the garden. This verse concerns the care of a place, not a relationship directly, yet its language offers a way to consider your love. Cultivation asks for attention to what helps life grow; keeping involves care for what has been entrusted. Neither is the same as forcing growth. In your relationship, you might notice the ordinary work of listening, making room, or repairing a careless word. The other person is not your project, and care does not mean taking responsibility for everything. Which small act of attentive care is yours to offer without trying to control its result?

Carry thisCare makes room for growth without owning the result.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

What do I need to let go of in the coming weeks?

The garden is a place to cultivate and keep, not merely a place to produce. This verse does not identify what you need to let go of, but its two verbs offer a way to examine what occupies you. Cultivating gives attention to growth; keeping gives attention to care and preservation. Some demands may consume your energy without serving either. Others may be quiet responsibilities that deserve more room than they receive. You need not turn this verse into a verdict on your schedule. You can sit with the difference between tending what matters and simply doing more. Could you release something in order to give more faithful attention to what is yours to tend?

Carry thisTending what matters is different from simply doing more.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

How can I find stillness in a busy life?

A garden needs attention, but cultivating and keeping it are not the same as doing everything. This verse speaks about human work rather than stillness, yet its picture of care offers a gentler way to consider your busy day. The man is placed in a particular garden, with particular work to tend. You might pause over those two words, cultivate and keep, without turning them into another demand. Some tasks nurture what matters; others merely keep you moving. Stillness can make room to notice the difference, even when the work remains unfinished. Which part of your care needs patient attention rather than more hurried effort?

Carry thisPatient care is different from the pressure to do everything.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

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Genesis 2 — in context

9Out of the ground the LORD God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became the source of four rivers.

11The name of the first is Pishon: it flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also there.

13The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush.

14The name of the third river is Hiddekel. This is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

15The LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.

16The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;

17but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”

18The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

19Out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature became its name.

20The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper comparable to him.

21The LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.

More from Genesis

Related topics

Work and Calling

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