Bible Project outline - [Adapted from Jerome Walsh, Style and Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative]
Human alone
The words “abandon” (‘azab / בזע) and “cling” (dabaq / בקד) are covenantal terms that speak to the forsaking of previous bonds and “clinging” to one’s covenant partner (Deut 4:4; 10:20; 11:22; 22:5; 23:8).
Genesis 1-11 will go on to explore the fracturing of this ideal unity on all levels of the human family, setting up the reader’s expectation that God will solve again this “no good” situation of a humanity unable to do what God has called them to do.
1. Genesis 2-3: Fracturing the unity between a man and a woman (marriage)
2. Genesis 4a: Fracturing the unity between two siblings (family)
3. Genesis 4b: Fracturing the unity of a city (community)
4. Genesis 6:1-4: Distorting the unity of Heaven and Earth (cosmos)
5. Genesis 9:18-27: Fracturing the unity of the extended family (tribes)
6. Genesis 11: Distorting the unity of the human family (nations)
Psalm 133
Why the two-step solution—animals first then the matching human?
Despite God’s identification of man’s need, there is a delay in his provision: contrast the instantaneous fulfillment of the divine word in chap. 1. This hold-up creates suspense. It allows us to feel man’s loneliness. All the animals are brought before him, and we see him looking at each one in the hope it would make a suitable companion for man. Ber. Rab. 17:5 pictures the animals passing by in pairs and man commenting, “Everything has its partner but I have no partner. —GORDON J. WENHAM, GENESIS 1–15, 68