And the LORD God commanded the man: although God commanded or ordered something to exist in each of the events of creation in subdivision 1A-1, this is the first use of the verb with that meaning. Here commanded is followed by a statement of permission, which is followed by a negative command. Good News Translation has “He told him,” and New English Bible “He told the man.” For the man see 2.7.

In Revised Standard Version saying, which renders the Hebrew literally, is a kind of quotation mark, or has the effect of an opening quotation mark (quotation marks are not used in Hebrew). Translators should only use this form if it is a natural way to introduce a quotation in the language.

You may freely eat of every tree of the garden: freely eat translates an idiomatic double use of the verb “eat” that gives emphasis to the verb and means “certainly, surely, without doubt.” Of every tree of the garden means “the fruit of any tree in the garden.”

In some languages a literal translation of eat of every tree may suggest eating part of the tree. In other languages there may be no general word for fruit, and so it may be necessary to say, for example, “You may eat anything you gather from the trees” or “You may eat whatever you pick from the trees.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .