Genesis 2:4

Having related the creation of the universe as we know it, God next inspired Moses to explain for his readers what became of it. Sin entered it and devastated it.

"The destiny of the human creation is to live in God’s world, with God’s other creatures, on God’s terms." [Note: W. Brueggemann, Genesis, p. 40.]

The Hebrew word toledot occurs first in Genesis 2:4 where it introduces the next section of the book. This Hebrew word often reads "generations," "histories," "descendants," or, as here (in the NASB and NIV), "account." The word summarizes what follows in the section and introduces what became of something, in this case the universe, or, more often, someone. The person mentioned after toledot is not usually the central figure in the section but the person who originated what follows. The toledot statements contribute the major structural and conceptual framework for the whole Book of Genesis. [Note: Cf. Martin Woudstra, "The Toledot of the Book of Genesis and Their Redemptive-Historical Significance," Calvin Theological Journal 5:2 (1970):188-89.]

". . . the material within each tol’dot is a microcosm of the development of the Book of Genesis itself, with the motifs of blessing and cursing playing a dominant role. Within each of the first several tol’dot is a deterioration to cursing until Genesis 12:1-12, where the message moves to the promise of blessing. From this point on there is a constant striving for the place of blessing, but still with each successive narrative there is deterioration, for Isaac and Jacob did not measure up to Abraham. Consequently at the end of Genesis the family is not in the land of blessing but in Egypt." [Note: Ross, "Genesis," p. 24.]