Meaning, commentary and cross references
Genesis 2:24
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”In other translations
KJV · King James Version
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
NIV · New International Version
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
WEB · World English Bible
Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.
What does Genesis 2:24 mean?
John Gill · Exposition of the Entire Bible, on Genesis 2:24
Therefore shall a man leave his father, and his mother,.... These are thought by some to be the words of Moses, inferring from the above fact, what ought to be among men; and by others, the words of Adam under divine inspiration, as the father of mankind instructing his sons what to do, and foretelling what would be done in all succeeding ages: though they rather seem to be the words of God himself, by whom marriage was now instituted; and who here gives direction about it, and declares the case and circumstance of man upon it, and how he would and should behave: and thus our Lord Jesus Christ, quoting these words, makes them to be the words of him that made man, male and female, and…
John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63). Public domain. Digital text: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org).
John Calvin · Commentaries, on Genesis 2:24
Therefore shall a man leave It is doubted whether Moses here introduces God as speaking, or continues the discourse of Adam, or, indeed, has added this, in virtue of his office as teacher, in his own person. [151] The last of these is that which I most approve. Therefore, after he has related historically what God had done, he also demonstrates the end of the divine institution. The sum of the whole is, that among the offices pertaining to human society, this is the principal, and as it were the most sacred, that a man should cleave unto his wife. And he amplifies this by a superadded comparison, that the husband ought to prefer his wife to his father.
John Calvin, Commentaries (Calvin Translation Society English text). Public domain. Digital text: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org).
Context: Genesis 2:21–25 (WEB)
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. 22The LORD God made a woman from the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.” 24Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh. 25The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.
Cross references
- Matthew 19:3–9
Pharisees came to him, testing him and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”
- Ephesians 5:28–31
Even so husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.
- Mark 10:6–12
But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.
- Romans 7:2
For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.
- 1 Peter 3:1–7
In the same way, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, so that, even if any don’t obey the Word, they may be won by the behavior of their wives without a word,
- 1 Corinthians 7:2–4
But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
- 1 Corinthians 6:16–17
Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.”
- Proverbs 31:10
Who can find a worthy woman? For her value is far above rubies.