Where Are You? (Gen 3:9)

Into and Out of the Garden

⁹ YHWH God called the human and said to him …

וַיִּקְרָ֛א יְ׳הוָ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶל־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיֹּ֥אמֶר ל֖וֹ

We’ve seen the phrase “God called” three times already, but each of those times was in Genesis 1, where God “called” something by a name. YHWH “calls” Moses up Mount Sinai in preparation for the revelation in Exodus 20 and perhaps also (depending on how you read it) at the beginning of the book of Leviticus, which Jews call Sefer Vayikra for its first word: וַיִּקְרָ֖^א. But this is the first time God, or anyone, has “called” to someone in order to speak to him.

You remember that when v. 8 began, our friends were in one part of the garden and YHWH was in another. “They heard” him but could not see him. Then they hid to make sure he could not see them. They had eaten from the tree and learned to be embarrassed that they were naked. I’ve never been dressed in fig leaves, but I can imagine that would be very little less embarrassing than being nude.

Another reason for them to hide is perhaps that they thought it would somehow be obvious that they had eaten from the tree YHWH told them not to eat from and they were simply not ready to face the music. Despite what people commonly think about this story, readers of this column will remember that …

• it’s not clear whether YHWH was ordering them not to eat or warning them;

• they were told they would die once they ate, but they didn’t;

• they were told they would be “like” gods (or God), and they might not be ready to make the comparison;

• they wished to be enlightened and perhaps had been.

So we can understand, in story terms, why they are hiding, even if we don’t exactly know the reason or reasons for sure.

But why is YHWH looking for the human? Ostensibly, he was put into the garden “to work it and keep it” (2:15), though we haven’t actually seen him being given any duties. And YHWH probably isn’t calling him to find out whether he’s cut the grass, trimmed the hedges, watered the beans, or anything of that sort, for three reasons: