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The Beginning
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
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Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
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and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so.
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God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth,
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And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.”
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God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.”
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God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
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Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
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And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
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Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
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Adam and Eve
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
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Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground,
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but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.
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When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
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Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
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Wickedness in the World
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them,
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The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
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The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
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The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
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So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
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Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.
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God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.
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So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.
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I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.
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and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.
