Let us now take the details of Eden as they occur. In Gen. ii. 8 we read that the garden lay "in Eden eastward," where "eastward" is generally taken to mean "in the east of the earth." This, however, seems inconsistent with Isa. xiv. 13, where the "mountain of God," which corresponds (see Ezek. xxviii. 13, 14 and the article ADAM) to the "garden in Eden," is said to have been "in the uttermost parts of the north" (so R.V.). The former statement ("eastward") suits Babylonia, where Friedrich Delitzsch[1] places Eden; the latter does not. We are further told (v. 10) that "a river went out from Eden to water the garden," and that "from thence it parted itself (?), and became four heads (?)," which is commonly understood to mean that the river was so large that, soon after leaving the garden ("from thence" is all that the text says), it could still supply four considerable streams (the text says, not "streams," but "heads," i.e. perhaps "beginnings" or "starting-points"). In _vv._ 11-14 the names of four rivers are given, but in spite of the descriptive supplements attached to three of them, only that one which has no supplement can be identified with much probability. In fact, Perath may without any obvious difficulty be "Euphrates," except in Jer. xiii., where a more southerly stream seems indicated, but to the identification of "Hiddekel" with "Tigris" (Babylonian Diglat) the presence of the initial _Hi_ in the Hebrew is an objection. Now as to "Pishon" and "Gihon." If a moderately early tradition may be trusted, the "Gihon" is another name for the "Shihor," which was either in or beside "Mizraim" (= Egypt) or Mizrim (= the North Arabian Musri), and indeed according to most scholars means the Nile in Jer. ii. 18, where the Septuagint substitutes for it Geon, i.e. Gihon. For "Pishon" few plausible suggestions have been made; it is not, however, a hopeless problem from the point of view which recognizes Eden in Arabia.