The Breath of Life
The garden account zooms in from the cosmic sweep of Genesis 1 to the intimate forming of the first human. Two anatomical anchors define the chapter: God breathing life into dust (v.7), and the woman drawn from the man's own body, "bone of my bones" (v.23).
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.
Then the LORD God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
The LORD God also said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a suitable helper."
So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, He took one of the man's ribs and closed up the area with flesh.
And from the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man, He made a woman and brought her to him.
And the man said: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for out of man she was taken."
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
And the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.