The Creation of the World

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water.

God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate water from water.”

God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear.” It was so.

God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: plants yielding seeds and trees on the land bearing fruit with seed in it, according to their kinds.” It was so.

God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs to indicate seasons and days and years,

and let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” It was so.

God made two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also.

God placed the lights in the expanse of the sky to shine on the earth,

to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.

God said, “Let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.”

God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.”

God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.”

Then God said, “I now give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

And to all the animals of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has living breath in it—I give every green plant for food.” It was so.

By the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, and he ceased on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing.

God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation.

The Creation of Man and Woman

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created—when the Lord God made the earth and heavens.

Now no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

Springs would well up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.

The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

The Lord God planted an orchard in the east, in Eden; and there he placed the man he had formed.

The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, every tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food. (Now the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were in the middle of the orchard.)