Verse Lens · Context pointer

Genesis 2:10 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 10. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Role in This Section

A river waters Eden and then divides into four branches outside the garden.

Read It With

  • Genesis 2:4–25

Read verses 10–14 together. The single river and four branches form one geographical description.

Why It Needs Context

The verse begins a map-like aside whose mixture of known and unknown names does not permit a certain modern location.

Read Genesis 2:10–14 together

Why these verses belong together: The four-river geography is one descriptive aside and cannot be interpreted responsibly as isolated river claims.

Verse 10. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

Verse 11. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

Verse 12. And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

Verse 13. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

Verse 14. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read Genesis 2:4–25 — God Forms Human Life for Vocation and Relationship
Sources used for this context pointer

How certain is this explanation? strong

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Reader-facing Scripture wording, verse numbering, paragraph data, and supplied-word markup.

Exact location: Pinned eBible/CrossWire standardized 1769 KJV corpus, Genesis 2:4–25

Open source ↗

hebrew text morphology and lemma data

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible — Genesis

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project

Open Scriptures, Version 2.2 released 2021; repository inspected 2026

Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, wordplay, clause structure, and verse boundaries.

Exact location: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible, wlc/Gen.xml, Genesis 2:4–25

Open source ↗
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