Bible Meaning: Pleasure
Strong's Concordance #H5731
Two passages in Scripture refer to men named Eden (2Chronicles 29:12, 31:5). Another verse mentions a ruler over Damascus who held the scepter of the house of Eden (Amos 1:5).
Eden was the name of a city (or region) in the Assyrian province of Thelassar (Isaiah 37:12, 2Kings 19:12). Ezekiel 27:23 references an unknown area called by this name that traded with Tyre.
The most common Biblical reference, however, is of the place where Adam and Eve were created and where they lived prior to their expulsion. Created and embellished by God especially for the first humans, it was a beautiful place with a warm climate and full of lush vegetation. It contained a wide variety of edible plants and tame animals all for the enjoyment of humans.
The exact location of Eden is unknown partly due to Noah's flood sweeping it away and any evidence of its existence. One commonly held theory places the famed garden in the general area near the northern end of the Persian Gulf (possibly underwater).
Important Verses
Person / Group
2Chronicles 29:12
Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites: and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehalelel: and of the Gershonites: Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah.
Amos 1:1, 5
The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake . . .
I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden . . .
Location
Genesis 2:7 - 8
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden: and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Genesis 3:11, 22, 24
And he (God) said, Who told thee (Adam) that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? . . .
And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever . . .
So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Genesis 4:16
And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
Isaiah 51:3
For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places: and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord: joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
Ezekiel 28:13
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God: every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold . . .
Joel 2:3
A fire devoureth before them: and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness: yea, and nothing shall escape them.