Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 2:11-12

"The name of the first is Pishon: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone." — Genesis 2:11-12 (ASV)

The name of the first is Pison. —“The full-flowing” (Gesenius), or “free-streaming” (Fürst). Neither derivation has much authority for it in the Hebrew language, and we must wait for the true explanation until the cuneiform inscriptions have been more thoroughly examined. As two of the four rivers of Paradise rise in Armenia, so we must probably seek the other two there; but the conjectures of commentators have so far suggested no probable identification of this stream.

Compasses. —This word, without strictly meaning to go round, gives the idea of a devious course (compare 1 Samuel 7:16; Song of Solomon 3:3), as if the river had now reached a level plain.

Havilah may mean sandy land (Deutsch), or circuit region. There seems to have been more than one country of this name, but the most probable is that in South-Western Arabia, afterwards colonised by the Joktanites (Genesis 10:29), which this river skirted rather than traversed.

However, we know of no such river, rising in Armenia or elsewhere, that answers to this description now. Besides gold of great purity, pronounced emphatically “good,” this land produced “bdellium,” a scented gum, to which manna is compared (Numbers 11:7), though the meaning even there is uncertain.

Instead of bedolach (bdellium), the Syriac reads berulchê; that is, the same word in the plural but with d instead of r. These two letters are very similar, not only in the square Hebrew alphabet now in use but also in the original Samaritan characters, and are constantly interchanged in manuscripts.

Since berulchê means pearls, this sense agrees better with the other products of Havilah: gold and onyx stones.

As bedolach is a quadriliteral, while Hebrew words have only three root letters, we must look to the Akkadian language for its true meaning, if this is indeed the correct reading.

The onyx stone. —Although there is considerable authority for this translation, the Septuagint, supported by most ancient authorities, is probably right in regarding this gem as the beryl of a light green colour (leek-stone, Septuagint). The root means something pale, while the onyx gets its name from its markings resembling those of the human nail.