The Hebrew words in question are עזר כנגדו (ezer kenegdo). The
Hebrew root עזר means “help” and the word kenegdo comes from the
root word נגד (neged). Neged in the OT always means "opposite"
or "across from" and negdo means across from him. In Exodus
19:2, Israel encamp neged hahar, opposite to Mount Sinai. The
form kenegedo doesn't appear anywhere else in the Old Testament
but is often used by the Sages of the Talmud to mean
“corresponding to.” In his "The Art of Biblical Narrative,"
Robert Alter offers the translation “a sustainer beside him” and
the more literal translation: "an aid opposite him." Here is
some of Alter's discussion of this passage: "It is not good for
man to be alone. I shall make him a sustainer beside him
(2:18)." [Following this verse] there occurs a peculiar
interruption. We have been conditioned by the previous version
of cosmogony to expect an immediate act of creation to flow from
the divine utterance that is introduced by the formula, "And God
said." Here, however, we must wait two