Genesis 1 – 2

The Creation of the World

Genesis 1

¹ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was undeveloped ^[1] and empty. Darkness covered the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

³ God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” There was evening and there was morning—the first day.

⁶ God said, “Let there be an expanse ^[2] between the waters, and let it separate the water from the water.” ⁷ God made the expanse, and he separated the water that was below the expanse from the water that was above the expanse, and it was so. ⁸ God called the expanse “sky.” ^[3]There was evening and there was morning—the second day.

⁹ God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear,” and it was so. ⎣The waters under the sky gathered to their own places, and the dry land appeared.⎦ ^{[4] 10} God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathering places of the waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good. ¹¹ God said, “Let the earth produce plants—vegetation that produces seed, and trees that bear fruit with its seed in it—each according to its own kind on the earth,” and it was so. ¹² The earth brought forth plants, vegetation that produces seed according to its own kind, and trees that bear fruit with its seed in it, each according to its own kind, and God saw that it was good. ¹³ There was evening and there was morning—the third day.

¹⁴ God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night, and let them serve as markers to indicate seasons, days, and years. ¹⁵ Let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth,” and it was so. ¹⁶ God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set these lights in place in the expanse of the sky to provide light for the earth, ¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning—the fourth day.

²⁰ God said, “Let the waters swarm with living creatures, and let birds and other winged creatures ^[5] fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” ²¹ God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their own kind, and every winged bird according to its own kind. God saw that it was good. ²² God blessed them when he said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ There was evening and there was morning—the fifth day.

²⁴ God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their own kind, livestock, ^[6] creeping things, and wild animals according to their own kind,” and it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their own kind, and the livestock according to their own kind, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its own kind. God saw that it was good.

²⁶ God said, “Let us make man ^[7] in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that crawls on the earth.”

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹ God said, “Look, I have given you every plant that produces seed on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that bears fruit that produces seed. It will be your food. ³⁰ To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

³¹ God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning—the sixth day.

Genesis 2

¹ The heavens and the earth were finished, along with everything in them. ^{[8] 2} On the seventh day God had finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had been doing. ³ God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on it he rested from all his work of creation that he had done.

The Creation of Man and Woman

⁴ This is the account about the development ^[9] of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens:

⁵ No bushes that grow in the field were yet on the earth, ^[10] and no plants of the field had yet sprung up, since the Lord God had not yet caused it to rain on the earth. There was not yet a man to till the soil, ⁶ but water ^[11] came up from the earth and watered the entire surface of the ground.

⁷ The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground ^[12] and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. ⁸ The Lord God planted a garden ^[13] in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹ Out of the ground the Lord God made every kind of tree grow—trees that are pleasant to look at and good for food, including the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

¹⁰ A river went out from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became the headwaters of four rivers. ¹¹ The name of the first river is Pishon. It flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, ¹² and the gold of that land is good. Incense ^[14] and onyx stone are also found there. ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that winds through the whole land of Cush. ^{[15] 14} The name of the third river is Tigris. This is the one which flows along the east side of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it. ¹⁶ The Lord God gave a command to the man. He said, “You may freely eat from every tree in the garden, ¹⁷ but you shall not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for on the day that you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

¹⁸ The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is a suitable partner for him.” ¹⁹ Out of the soil the Lord God had formed every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that became its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal, but for Adam ^[16] no helper was found who was a suitable partner for him. ²¹ The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, the Lord God took a rib ^[17] and closed up the flesh where it had been. ²² The Lord God built a woman from the rib that he had taken from the man and brought her to the man.