The chapter
Simply The seventh day is set apart. Then the account starts again from a dry ground, a man formed from dust, a garden planted for him, animals brought to be named, and a woman made last.
Context The order here is not the order of chapter 1, and the text does not smooth it over. Chapter 1 has plants, then animals, then human beings male and female together, on the sixth day. Chapter 2 has the man first, before any plant of the field had sprung up, then the garden, then the animals, then the woman. Both stand in the book, and a reader can open one after the other. Verse 4 is where the second begins, with a formula that will open new sections all through Genesis: this is the history of the generations.
Verses 8-17
Simply A garden is planted east in Eden, with two named trees in it and a river that divides into four. The man is put there to work it and keep it, and told he may eat from every tree but one.
Context The permission is larger than the prohibition and comes first, which is easy to lose: every tree, then one exception. Two of the four rivers are named and still findable, the Hiddekel and the Euphrates; the other two are not, and the text names lands rather than explaining them.
Verses 18-25
Simply It is not good for the man to be alone. Animals are formed and brought to him and he names them, and none is found to match him. Then the woman is made, and he speaks for the first time.
Context The naming of the animals is placed inside the search for a companion rather than beside it, so the chapter makes the man look for one and not find it. His first recorded words are a poem, and verse 24 is the sentence Matthew 19 has Jesus quote when he is asked about divorce.