World’s creation in seven days

1 When God began to create^[a] the heavens and the earth— ² the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters— ³ God said, “Let there be light.” And so light appeared. ⁴ God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God named the light Day and the darkness Night.

There was evening and there was morning: the first day.

⁶ God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters to separate the waters from each other.” ⁷ God made the dome and separated the waters under the dome from the waters above the dome. And it happened in that way. ⁸ God named the dome Sky.

There was evening and there was morning: the second day.

⁹ God said, “Let the waters under the sky come together into one place so that the dry land can appear.” And that’s what happened. ¹⁰ God named the dry land Earth, and he named the gathered waters Seas. God saw how good it was. ¹¹ God said, “Let the earth grow plant life: plants yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind throughout the earth.” And that’s what happened. ¹² The earth produced plant life: plants yielding seeds, each according to its kind, and trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was.

¹³ There was evening and there was morning: the third day.

¹⁴ God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will mark events, sacred seasons, days, and years. ¹⁵ They will be lights in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth.” And that’s what happened. ¹⁶ God made the stars and two great lights: the larger light to rule over the day and the smaller light to rule over the night. ¹⁷ God put them in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth, ¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw how good it was.

¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning: the fourth day.

²⁰ God said, “Let the waters swarm with living things, and let birds fly above the earth up in the dome of the sky.” ²¹ God created the great sea animals and all the tiny living things that swarm in the waters, each according to its kind, and all the winged birds, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was. ²² Then God blessed them: “Be fertile and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”

²³ There was evening and there was morning: the fifth day.

7 The Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark with your whole household, because among this generation I’ve seen that you are a moral man. ² From every clean animal, take seven pairs, a male and his mate; and from every unclean animal, take one pair, a male and his mate; ³ and from the birds in the sky as well, take seven pairs, male and female, so that their offspring will survive throughout the earth. ⁴ In seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will wipe off from the fertile land every living thing that I have made.”

⁵ Noah did everything the Lord commanded him.

⁶ Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters arrived on earth. ⁷ Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark to escape the floodwaters. ⁸ From the clean and unclean animals, from the birds and everything crawling on the ground, ⁹ two of each, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, just as God commanded Noah. ¹⁰ After seven days, the floodwaters arrived on the earth. ¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day—on that day all the springs of the deep sea erupted, and the windows in the skies opened. ¹² It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights. ¹³ That same day Noah, with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and his sons’ three wives, went into the ark. ¹⁴ They and every kind of animal—every kind of livestock, every kind that crawls on the ground, every kind of bird^[a]— ¹⁵ they came to Noah and entered the ark, two of every creature that breathes. ¹⁶ Male and female of every creature went in, just as God had commanded him. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.^[b]

¹⁷ The flood remained on the earth for forty days. The waters rose, lifted the ark, and it rode high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters rose and spread out over the earth. The ark floated on the surface of the waters. ¹⁹ The waters rose even higher over the earth; they covered all of the highest mountains under the sky. ²⁰ The waters rose twenty-three feet high, covering the mountains. ²¹ Every creature took its last breath: the things crawling on the ground, birds, livestock, wild animals, everything swarming on the ground, and every human being. ²² Everything on dry land with life’s breath in its nostrils died. ²³ God wiped away every living thing that was on the fertile land—from human beings to livestock to crawling things to birds in the sky. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ark were left. ²⁴ The waters rose over the earth for one hundred fifty days.

8 God remembered Noah, all those alive, and all the animals with him in the ark. God sent a wind over the earth so that the waters receded. ² The springs of the deep sea and the skies^[c] closed up. The skies held back the rain. ³ The waters receded gradually from the earth. After one hundred fifty days, the waters decreased; ⁴ and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day, the ark came to rest on the Ararat mountains. ⁵ The waters decreased gradually until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the mountain peaks appeared.

⁶ After forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made. ⁷ He sent out a raven, and it flew back and forth until the waters over the entire earth had dried up. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see if the waters on all of the fertile land had subsided, ⁹ but the dove found no place to set its foot. It returned to him in the ark since waters still covered the entire earth. Noah stretched out his hand, took it, and brought it back into the ark. ¹⁰ He waited seven more days and sent the dove out from the ark again. ¹¹ The dove came back to him in the evening, grasping a torn olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the waters were subsiding from the earth. ¹² He waited seven more days and sent out the dove, but it didn’t come back to him again. ¹³ In Noah’s six hundred first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters dried up from the earth. Noah removed the ark’s hatch and saw that the surface of the fertile land had dried up. ¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day, the earth was dry.

¹⁵ God spoke to Noah, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you all the animals of every kind—birds, livestock, everything crawling on the ground—so that they may populate the earth, be fertile, and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noah went out of the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ All the animals, all the livestock,^[d] all the birds, and everything crawling on the ground, came out of the ark by their families.

God’s promise for the earth

²⁰ Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of the clean large animals and some of the clean birds, and placed entirely burned offerings on the altar. ²¹ The Lord smelled the pleasing scent, and the Lord thought to himself, I will not curse the fertile land anymore because of human beings since the ideas of the human mind are evil from their youth. I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done.

¹⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to get moving. ¹⁶ As for you, lift your shepherd’s rod, stretch out your hand over the sea, and split it in two so that the Israelites can go into the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷ But me, I’ll make the Egyptians stubborn so that they will go in after them, and I’ll gain honor at the expense of Pharaoh, all his army, his chariots, and his cavalry. ¹⁸ The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I gain honor at the expense of Pharaoh, his chariots, and his cavalry.”

¹⁹ God’s messenger, who had been in front of Israel’s camp, moved and went behind them. The column of cloud moved from the front and took its place behind them. ²⁰ It stood between Egypt’s camp and Israel’s camp. The cloud remained there, and when darkness fell it lit up the night. They didn’t come near each other all night.

²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord pushed the sea back by a strong east wind all night, turning the sea into dry land. The waters were split into two. ²² The Israelites walked into the sea on dry ground. The waters formed a wall for them on their right hand and on their left. ²³ The Egyptians chased them and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and cavalry. ²⁴ As morning approached, the Lord looked down on the Egyptian camp from the column of lightning and cloud and threw the Egyptian camp into a panic. ²⁵ The Lord jammed their chariot wheels so that they wouldn’t turn easily. The Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites, because the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt!”

²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the water comes back and covers the Egyptians, their chariots, and their cavalry.” ²⁷ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. At daybreak, the sea returned to its normal depth. The Egyptians were driving toward it, and the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. ²⁸ The waters returned and covered the chariots and the cavalry, Pharaoh’s entire army that had followed them into the sea. Not one of them remained. ²⁹ The Israelites, however, walked on dry ground through the sea. The waters formed a wall for them on their right hand and on their left.

³⁰ The Lord rescued Israel from the Egyptians that day. Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. ³¹ Israel saw the amazing power of the Lord against the Egyptians. The people were in awe of the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

Directions for crossing the Jordan

3 Joshua took down the camp early in the morning. He and all the Israelites marched out of Shittim and came to the Jordan, where they stayed overnight before crossing. ² At the end of three days the officers went through the middle of the camp. ³ They commanded the people, “As soon as you see the Lord your God’s chest containing the covenant and the levitical priests carrying it, you are to march out from your places and follow it. ⁴ But let there be some distance between you and it, about three thousand feet. Don’t come near it! You will know the way you should go, even though you’ve never traveled this way before.”

⁵ Joshua said to the people, “Make yourselves holy! Tomorrow the Lord will do wonderful things among you.” ⁶ Then Joshua said to the priests, “Lift up the covenant chest. Go along in front of the people.” So they lifted up the covenant chest and went in front of the people.

⁷ The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to make you great in the opinion of all Israel. Then they will know that I will be with you in the same way that I was with Moses. ⁸ You are to command the priests who carry the covenant chest, ‘As soon as you come to the bank of the Jordan, stand still in the Jordan.’”

⁹ Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come close. Listen to the words of the Lord your God.” ¹⁰ Then Joshua said, “This is how you will know that the living God is among you and will completely remove the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites before you. ¹¹ Look! The covenant chest of the ruler of the entire earth is going to cross over in front of you in the Jordan. ¹² Now pick twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one per tribe. ¹³ The soles of the priests’ feet, who are carrying the chest of the Lord, ruler of the whole earth, will come to rest in the water of the Jordan. At that moment, the water of the Jordan will be cut off. The water flowing downstream will stand still in a single heap.”

Marching across the Jordan

¹⁴ The people marched out from their tents to cross over the Jordan. The priests carrying the covenant chest were in front of the people. ¹⁵ When the priests who were carrying the chest came to the Jordan, their feet touched the edge of the water. The Jordan had overflowed its banks completely, the way it does during the entire harvest season. ¹⁶ But at that moment the water of the Jordan coming downstream stood still. It rose up as a single heap very far off, just below Adam, which is the city next to Zarethan. The water going down to the desert sea (that is, the Dead Sea) was cut off completely. The people crossed opposite Jericho. ¹⁷ So the priests carrying the Lord’s covenant chest stood firmly on dry land in the middle of the Jordan. Meanwhile, all Israel crossed over on dry land, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan.

Twelve stones at Gilgal

4 When the entire nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, ² “Pick twelve men from the people, one man per tribe. ³ Command them, ‘Pick up twelve stones from right here in the middle of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests had been firmly planted. Bring them across with you and put them down in the camp where you are staying tonight.’”

⁴ Joshua called for the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one man per tribe. ⁵ Joshua said to them, “Cross over into the middle of the Jordan, up to the Lord your God’s chest. Each of you, lift up a stone on his shoulder to match the number of the tribes of the Israelites. ⁶ This will be a symbol among you. In the future your children may ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ ⁷ Then you will tell them that the water of the Jordan was cut off before the Lord’s covenant chest. When it crossed over the Jordan, the water of the Jordan was cut off. These stones will be an enduring memorial for the Israelites.”

⁸ The Israelites did exactly what Joshua ordered. They lifted twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, matching the number of the tribes of the Israelites, exactly as the Lord had said to Joshua. They brought them over to the camp and put them down there. ⁹ Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan where the feet of the priests had stood while carrying the covenant chest. They are still there today.

Crossing completed

¹⁰ Meanwhile, the priests carrying the chest were standing in the middle of the Jordan. They stood there until every command that the Lord had ordered Joshua to tell the people had been carried out. This was exactly what Moses had commanded Joshua. The people crossed over quickly. ¹¹ As soon as all the people had finished crossing, the Lord’s chest crossed over. The priests then moved to the front of the people. ¹² The people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh crossed over, organized for war ahead of the Israelites, exactly as Moses had told them. ¹³ Approximately forty thousand armed for war crossed over in the Lord’s presence to the plains of Jericho, ready for battle. ¹⁴ The Lord made Joshua great in the opinion of all Israel on that day. So they revered him in the same way that they had revered Moses during all of his life.

¹⁵ The Lord said to Joshua, ¹⁶ “Command the priests carrying the chest containing the testimony to come up out of the Jordan.”

¹⁷ So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up from the Jordan.” ¹⁸ The priests carrying the Lord’s covenant chest came up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of their feet touched dry ground. At that moment, the water of the Jordan started flowing again. It ran as before, completely over its banks. ¹⁹ The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month.^[a] They camped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.

Stones at Gilgal

²⁰ Joshua set up at Gilgal those twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan. ²¹ He said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask their parents, ‘What about these stones?’ ²² Then you will let your children know: ‘Israel crossed over the Jordan here on dry ground.’ ²³ This was because the Lord your God dried up the water of the Jordan before you until you crossed over. This was exactly what the Lord your God did to the Reed Sea.^[b] He dried it up before us until we crossed over. ²⁴ This happened so that all the earth’s peoples might know that the Lord’s power is great and that you may always revere the Lord your God.”