Genesis 2:13

Gen 2:13 And the name of the second river [is] Gihon: the same [is] it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

Ver. 13. The name of the second river is Gihon.] This is the same, say some, which the Egyptians call Nile. Others make it to be a channel of the river Euphrates, called by those that dwell near it Naharsares. The hill where Solomon was anointed king, was also called Gihon.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:13 Gihon: Though unknown, proposals have included the Nile (as in the Greek version of Jer 2:18; Josephus, Antiquities 1.1.3), the Jordan, or, according to Jewish tradition, a river that formerly ran through the Kidron Valley (1 Kgs 1:33; 2 Chr 33:14). • Although Cush is the name of ancient Ethiopia, Mesopotamian regions associated with Babylon seem to be the immediate setting (see 10:8); Cush is possibly the land of the Kassites, a dynasty ruling in Babylonia.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or, Ethiopia.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(13) Gihon, “the river that bursts forth,” has been supposed to be the Nile, because it is said to wind about Ethiopia (Cush). According to this view, there was originally no break between Asia and Africa, and the Nile, entering Abyssinia from Arabia, took thence a northerly course, and traversed Egypt. But Cush is now known to have signified at this period the southern half of Arabia, and it was not until later times that the name was carried by colonists to Abys. sinia. Moreover Gihon, in Arabic Jaihan, is a common name among the Arabs for a river, and perhaps the Oxus is here meant, which flowed northward from Armenia into the Caspian. Mr. Sayce, however, thinks it is the Araxes, “the river of Babylon,” which flowed westward into the desert of Cush, in Arabia (Chald, Gen., p. 84).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. Gihon] This river is not mentioned again by the same name in the Bible, except in Sir_24:27. The student will be careful not to confound it with the Gihon of 1Ki_1:33, a spring in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. It is here described as encircling “the whole land of Cush.” “Cush” in the Bible generally denotes Ethiopia (but cf. Gen_10:8 note); and by Ethiopia would be signified Nubia, the Soudan, and Upper Egypt, a great tract of country watered by the Nile, cf. Isa_18:1. Hence, though the description “that compasseth the whole land of Cush” is fanciful, it seems very probable that the Gihon here means the Nile. The Nile is generally called in the Bible ye’or (cf. Gen_41:1), and sometimes Shihor (cf. Isa_23:3, Jer_2:18). See note Gen_41:1. For Cushites in David’s time, cf. 2Sa_18:21.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the name of the second river is Gihon,.... There was one of this name in the land of Israel, which, or a branch of it, flowed near Jerusalem, Kg1 1:33 this Aben Ezra suggests is here meant, and which favours the notion of the above learned man, that the garden of Eden was in the land of Israel. Josephus (h) takes it to be the river Nile, as do many others; it seems to have been a branch of the river Euphrates or Tigris, on the eastern side, as Phison was on the west; and so Aben Ezra says it came from the south east. The learned Reland (i) will have it to be the river Araxes: it has its name, according to Jarchi, from the force it goes with, and the noise it makes. And it seems to have its name from which signifies to come forth with great force, as this river is said to do, when it pours itself into the Baltic sea.

The same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia; either Ethiopia above Egypt; and this favours the notion of those who take Gihon to be the Nile: for Pausanias (k) says, that it was commonly reported that the Nile was Euphrates, which disappearing in a marsh, rose up above Ethiopia, and became the Nile, and so washed that country, and is thought to agree very well with the Mosaic account: or else that Cush or Ethiopia, which bordered on Midian, and was a part of Arabia, and may be called Arabia Chusea, often meant by Cush in Scripture. Reland (l) thinks the country of the Cossaeans or Cussaeans, a people bordering on Media, the country of Kuhestan, a province of Persia, is intended. (After the global destruction of Noah's flood, it is doubtful that the location of these rivers could be determined with any degree of certainty today. Ed.)

(h) Antiqu, l. 1. c. 1. sect. 3. Philostorg. Eccl. Hist. l. 3. c. 10. p. 482. (i) De situ Paradisi, p. 32. (k) Corinthiaca sive, l. 2. p. 94. (l) Ut supra, (De situ Paradisi) p. 38.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Gihon; not that river in the land of Israel, so called, 1Ki 1:33; 2Ch 32:30; but another of the same name, which in Hebrew signifies, the branch of a greater river: here it is a branch either of Euphrates, as most think, or of Tigris, as some late writers conceive.

Ethiopia; not that country in Africa above Egypt, commonly so called; but either Arabia, which in Scripture is frequently called

Cush or Ethiopia; of which, see Poole on "2Ki 19:9", see Poole on "Job 28:19", see Poole on "Eze 29:10", see Poole on "Eze 30:8", see Poole on "Eze 30:9", see Poole on "Hab 3:7".

Or rather a country adjoining to India and Persia, with which Cush is joined, Eze 38:5; see also Isa 11:11; Eze 27:10; and about which place the Ethiopians are seated by Herod. 1. 7, Homer, Hesiod, and others. Of which see my Latin Synopsis.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. Gihon — This name occurs again only as denoting a fountain near Jerusalem. 1Ki_1:33; 1Ki_1:38; 1Ki_1:45; 2Ch_32:30.

Compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia — The attempt to explain this as referring to any of the lands subsequently known as Ethiopia, or Cush, are, perhaps, the best possible refutation of the notion that the rivers of Eden are identical with any rivers now known. Cush was evidently the name of a region or country in the land of Eden, and it was very natural for Ham, the son of Noah, after the flood to name one of his sons in memory of this ancient country. Gen_10:6. The same considerations apply to the names Hiddekel, Assyria, (or Asshur; compare Gen_10:11; Gen_10:22,) and Euphrates, or Phrath, in the following verse. There is no sufficient reason for the belief that the original rivers and countries of Eden remained traceable after the flood.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the name of the second is the Gihon, or "the bursting," from jyGe, to break forth. "Deep-flowing," T. Lewis renders it, connecting it with wJkeanov, and identifying it with Homer"s baqurjrJoov Wkeanov. The same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia (Cush). Under the impression that the African Cush was meant, the Alexandrine Jews discovered the Gihon in the Nile an opinion in which they have been followed by Schulthess, Gesenius, Furst, Bertheau, Kalisch, and others. But Cush, it is now known, describes the entire region between Arabia and the Nile, and in particular the southern district of the former lying between the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Hence Tayler Lewis finds the Gihon in the ocean water sweeping round the south coast of Arabia. Murphy detects the name Kush in the words Caucasus and Caspian, and, looking for the site of Eden about the sources of the Euphrates and the Tigris in Armenia, thinks the Gihon may have been the leading stream flowing into the Caspian. Delitzsch advocates the claim of the Araxis to be this river.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gihon

This is the only mention of this river in the Bible. (See: How to Translate Names)

flows throughout the whole land of Cush

The river did not cover the whole land, but wound through various parts of the land.

the whole land of Cush

"the entire land called Cush"

which flows east of Ashur

"which flows in the land east of the city of Ashur." The Tigris River flows from north to south. The phrase "which flows east of Ashur" gives information about where the Tigris River is. Some languages would translate it as a separate sentence. AT: "It flows east of Ashur" (See: Distinguishing versus Informing or Reminding)

translationWords

Cush

Euphrates River

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

גיחון GICHON — It is so called because it flows on with a roar, its roaring being very noisy,—similar in meaning to (Exodus 21:28) וכי יגח “And if an [ox] gore” — for when it gores it rushes on roaring (Berakhot 59b.).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

ושם הנהר השני גיחון, this river flows in a southerly direction flowing around the whole land of Kush from which it enters Sarnediv known as the great sea, (Mediterranean) according to the experts in geography. After the Torah used the expression הסובב when describing the manner in which the first two rivers wended their way on the surface of the earth, it switches to the verb הלך in describing the flow of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. It appears that these first two rivers did not cross a certain country diagonally but detoured around it. גיחון, this name appears to reflect the manner in which this river splits up into many smaller rivers. [again we appear to face the concept of “tributaries” as being reversed, the main river creating something like a delta, i.e. breaking up into smaller distributaries. Ed.] The word means “exit” We find it appearing in this context in Job 40,23 כי יגיח ירדן אל פיהו, or in Ezekiel 32,2 ותגח בנהרותיך, as well as in similar instances. Incidentally, the שילוח is also called גיחון, seeing it splits into so many different rivulets in order to irrigate the gardens in Jerusalem.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.