Genesis 2:4
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth, where generations means the productions of each creation day, because on each literal day God generated or produced some new portion of His work. Each day of creation is called a generation for that reason, that in it God brought forth a new part of creation. The verse closes the record of the first creation week.
It also introduces and opens the detailed account of the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day the Lord God made them. In that account every plant and herb existed before growing because there was no rain and no man to till the ground and the ground was watered by mist. Man was formed from dust with the breath of life and became a living soul, and a garden was planted eastward in Eden with every tree pleasant to sight and good for food including the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil in its midst, and man was put there to dress and keep it.
The first week was seven literal days just like every other week, with each creation day consisting of evening and morning like every other day that has followed. It was made up of six literal days of creation followed by a seventh day of rest. The verse gives no support for long, indefinite ages in which the earth slowly evolved from chaos.
God measured off the first week as the sample cycle and pattern for all successive weeks till the close of time and throughout human history. Six days are given to man for labor because God worked in the same period, and the seventh is reserved, blessed and set apart for human use as a day of rest in commemoration of His rest after six days of creation. The weekly cycle of six days for labor and the seventh for rest originated in the great facts of those first seven days.
The verse shows God's plan in the beginning for equal taxation of the mental and physical powers, with man to dress and keep the garden through cultivation combining physical labor with mental exercise. As part of Genesis 2, the verse belongs to the Scriptural record that gives God's instruction and guidance and presents His standard of right-doing as eternal truth that can never be changed, to be read and obeyed with constant devotion and fear of God. It points to the Eden home given at creation and lost when Adam and Eve transgressed God's law, which Jesus Christ paid a price to ransom humanity from the hands of Satan so the obedient can be brought back to. That return requires searching the Scriptures, standing in right relation to God, keeping all of God's requirements, overcoming as Christ overcame by perfect obedience to His Father's commandments, and bending footsteps heavenward while pointing others to the Eden home.