1 When God began creating^[a] the heavens and the earth, ² the earth was^[b] a shapeless, chaotic mass, with the Spirit of God brooding over the dark vapors.

³ Then God said, “Let there be light.” And light appeared. ^4-5 And God was pleased with it and divided the light from the darkness. He called the light “daytime,” and the darkness “nighttime.” Together they formed the first day.^[c]

⁶ And God said, “Let the vapors separate^[d] to form the sky above and the oceans below.” ^7-8 So God made the sky, dividing the vapor above from the water below. This all happened on the second day.^[e]

^9-10 Then God said, “Let the water beneath the sky be gathered into oceans so that the dry land will emerge.” And so it was. Then God named the dry land “earth,” and the water “seas.” And God was pleased. ^11-12 And he said, “Let the earth burst forth with every sort of grass and seed-bearing plant, and fruit trees with seeds inside the fruit, so that these seeds will produce the kinds of plants and fruits they came from.” And so it was, and God was pleased. ¹³ This all occurred on the third day.^[f]

^14-15 Then God said, “Let bright lights appear in the sky to give light to the earth and to identify the day and the night; they shall bring about the seasons on the earth, and mark the days and years.” And so it was. ¹⁶ For God had made two huge lights, the sun and moon, to shine down upon the earth—the larger one, the sun, to preside over the day and the smaller one, the moon, to preside through the night; he had also made the stars. ¹⁷ And God set them in the sky to light the earth, ¹⁸ and to preside over the day and night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God was pleased. ¹⁹ This all happened on the fourth day.^[g]

²⁰ Then God said, “Let the waters teem with fish and other life, and let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” ^21-22 So God created great sea animals, and every sort of fish and every kind of bird. And God looked at them with pleasure, and blessed them all. “Multiply and stock the oceans,” he told them, and to the birds he said, “Let your numbers increase. Fill the earth!” ²³ That ended the fifth day.^[h]

²⁴ And God said, “Let the earth bring forth every kind of animal—cattle and reptiles and wildlife of every kind.” And so it was. ²⁵ God made all sorts of wild animals and cattle and reptiles. And God was pleased with what he had done.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make a man^[i]—someone like ourselves, to be the master of all life upon the earth and in the skies and in the seas.”

²⁸ And God blessed them and told them, “Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; you are masters of the fish and birds and all the animals. ²⁹ And look! I have given you the seed-bearing plants throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. ³⁰ And I’ve given all the grass and plants to the animals and birds for their food.” ³¹ Then God looked over all that he had made, and it was excellent in every way. This ended the sixth day.^[j]

2 Now at last the heavens and earth were successfully completed, with all that they contained. ² So on the seventh day, having finished his task, God ceased from this work he had been doing, ³ and God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he ceased this work of creation.

⁴ Here is a summary of the events in the creation of the heavens and earth when the Lord God made them.

⁵ There were no plants or grain sprouting up across the earth at first, for the Lord God hadn’t sent any rain; nor was there anyone to farm the soil. ⁶ (However, water welled up from the ground at certain places and flowed across the land.)

⁷ The time came when the Lord God formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground^[k] and breathed into it the breath of life. And man became a living person.

⁸ Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, to the east, and placed in the garden the man he had formed. ⁹ The Lord God planted all sorts of beautiful trees there in the garden, trees producing the choicest of fruit. At the center of the garden he placed the Tree of Life, and also the Tree of Conscience, giving knowledge of Good and Bad. ¹⁰ A river from the land of Eden flowed through the garden to water it; afterwards the river divided into four branches. ^11-12 One of these was named the Pishon; it winds across the entire length of the land of Havilah,^[l] where nuggets of pure gold are found, also beautiful bdellium and even lapis lazuli. ¹³ The second branch is called the Gihon, crossing the entire length of the land of Cush. ¹⁴ The third branch is the Tigris, which flows to the east of the city of Asher. And the fourth is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden as its gardener, to tend and care for it. ^16-17 But the Lord God gave the man this warning: “You may eat any fruit in the garden except fruit from the Tree of Conscience—for its fruit will open your eyes to make you aware of right and wrong, good and bad. If you eat its fruit, you will be doomed to die.”

¹⁸ And the Lord God said, “It isn’t good for man to be alone; I will make a companion for him, a helper suited to his needs.” ^19-20 So the Lord God formed from the soil every kind of animal and bird, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever he called them, that was their name. But still there was no proper helper for the man. ²¹ Then the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and took one of his ribs and closed up the place from which he had removed it, ²² and made the rib into a woman, and brought her to the man.

²³ “This is it!” Adam exclaimed. “She is part of my own bone and flesh! Her name is ‘woman’ because she was taken out of a man.” ²⁴ This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife in such a way that the two become one person.^{[m] 25} Now although the man and his wife were both naked, neither of them was embarrassed or ashamed.

3 The serpent was the craftiest of all the creatures the Lord God had made. So the serpent came to the woman. “Really?” he asked. “None of the fruit in the garden? God says you mustn’t eat any of it?”

^2-3 “Of course we may eat it,” the woman told him. “It’s only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not to eat. God says we mustn’t eat it or even touch it, or we will die.”

⁴ “That’s a lie!” the serpent hissed. “You’ll not die! ⁵ God knows very well that the instant you eat it you will become like him, for your eyes will be opened—you will be able to distinguish good from evil!”

⁶ The woman was convinced. How lovely and fresh looking it was! And it would make her so wise! So she ate some of the fruit and gave some to her husband, and he ate it too. ⁷ And as they ate it, suddenly they became aware of their nakedness, and were embarrassed. So they strung fig leaves together to cover themselves around the hips.

⁸ That evening they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden; and they hid themselves among the trees. ⁹ The Lord God called to Adam, “Why are you hiding?”^[n]

¹⁰ And Adam replied, “I heard you coming and didn’t want you to see me naked. So I hid.”

¹¹ “Who told you you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten fruit from the tree I warned you about?”

¹² “Yes,” Adam admitted, “but it was the woman you gave me who brought me some, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God asked the woman, “How could you do such a thing?”

“The serpent tricked me,” she replied.

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent, “This is your punishment: You are singled out from among all the domestic and wild animals of the whole earth—to be cursed. You shall grovel in the dust as long as you live, crawling along on your belly. ¹⁵ From now on you and the woman will be enemies, as will your offspring and hers. You will strike his heel, but he will crush your head.”

¹⁶ Then God said to the woman, “You shall bear children in intense pain and suffering; yet even so, you shall welcome your husband’s affections, and he shall be your master.”

¹⁷ And to Adam, God said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit when I told you not to, I have placed a curse upon the soil. All your life you will struggle to extract a living from it. ¹⁸ It will grow thorns and thistles for you, and you shall eat its grasses. ¹⁹ All your life you will sweat to master it, until your dying day. Then you will return to the ground from which you came. For you were made from the ground, and to the ground you will return.”

²⁰ The man named his wife Eve (meaning “The life-giving one”),^[o] for he said, “She shall become the mother of all mankind”; ²¹ and the Lord God clothed Adam and his wife with garments made from skins of animals.

²² Then the Lord said, “Now that the man has become as we are, knowing good from bad, what if he eats the fruit of the Tree of Life and lives forever?” ²³ So the Lord God banished him forever from the Garden of Eden, and sent him out to farm the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ Thus God expelled him, and placed mighty angels at the east of the Garden of Eden, with a flaming sword to guard the entrance to the Tree of Life.

4 Then Adam had sexual intercourse with Eve his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to a son, Cain (meaning “I have created”). For, as she said, “With God’s help, I have created a man!” ² Her next child was his brother, Abel.

Abel became a shepherd, while Cain was a farmer. ³ At harvest time Cain brought the Lord a gift of his farm produce, ⁴ and Abel brought the fatty cuts of meat from his best lambs, and presented them to the Lord. And the Lord accepted Abel’s offering, ⁵ but not Cain’s. This made Cain both dejected and very angry, and his face grew dark with fury.

⁶ “Why are you angry?” the Lord asked him. “Why is your face so dark with rage? ⁷ It can be bright with joy if you will do what you should! But if you refuse to obey, watch out. Sin is waiting to attack you, longing to destroy you. But you can conquer it!”

⁸ One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were together there, Cain attacked and killed his brother.

⁹ But afterwards the Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother? Where is Abel?”

“How should I know?” Cain retorted. “Am I supposed to keep track of him wherever he goes?”

¹⁰ But the Lord said, “Your brother’s blood calls to me from the ground. What have you done? ¹¹ You are hereby banished from this ground which you have defiled with your brother’s blood. ¹² No longer will it yield crops for you, even if you toil on it forever! From now on you will be a fugitive and a tramp upon the earth, wandering from place to place.”

¹³ Cain replied to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. ¹⁴ For you have banished me from my farm and from you, and made me a fugitive and a tramp; and everyone who sees me will try to kill me.”

¹⁵ The Lord replied, “They won’t kill you, for I will give seven times your punishment to anyone who does.” Then the Lord put an identifying mark on Cain as a warning not to kill him. ¹⁶ So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

¹⁷ Then Cain’s wife conceived and presented him with a baby son named Enoch; so when Cain founded a city, he named it Enoch, after his son.

¹⁸ Enoch was the father of^[p] Irad; Irad was the father of Mehujael; Mehujael was the father of Methusael; Methusael was the father of Lamech.

¹⁹ Lamech married two wives—Adah and Zillah. ²⁰ To Adah was born a baby named Jabal. He became the first of the cattlemen and those living in tents. ²¹ His brother’s name was Jubal, the first musician—the inventor of the harp and flute.^{[q] 22} To Lamech’s other wife, Zillah, was born Tubal-cain. He opened the first foundry^[r] forging instruments of bronze and iron.

²³ One day Lamech said to Adah and Zillah, “Listen to me, my wives. I have killed a youth who attacked and wounded me. ²⁴ If anyone who kills Cain will be punished seven times, anyone taking revenge against me for killing that youth should be punished seventy-seven times!”

²⁵ Later on Eve gave birth to another son and named him Seth (meaning “Granted”); for, as Eve put it, “God has granted me another son for the one Cain killed.” ²⁶ When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. It was during his lifetime that men first began to call themselves “the Lord’s people.”^[s]

5 Here is a list of some of the descendants of Adam^[t]—the man who was like God from the day of his creation. ² God created man and woman and blessed them, and called them Man from the start.

^3-5 Adam: Adam was 130 years old when his son Seth was born,^[u] the very image of his father in every way. After Seth was born, Adam lived another 800 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 930.

^6-8 Seth: Seth was 105 years old when his son Enosh was born. Afterwards he lived another 807 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 912.

^9-11 Enosh: Enosh was ninety years old when his son Kenan was born. Afterwards he lived another 815 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 905.

^12-14 Kenan: Kenan was seventy years old when his son Mahalalel was born. Afterwards he lived another 840 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 910.

^15-17 Mahalalel: Mahalalel was sixty-five years old when his son Jared was born. Afterwards he lived 830 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 895.

^18-20 Jared: Jared was 162 years old when his son Enoch was born. Afterwards he lived another 800 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 962.

^21-24 Enoch: Enoch was sixty-five years old when his son Methuselah was born. Afterwards he lived another 300 years in fellowship with God, and produced sons and daughters; then, when he was 365, and in constant touch with God, he disappeared, for God took him!

^25-27 Methuselah: Methuselah was 187 years old when his son Lamech was born; afterwards he lived another 782 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 969.

^28-31 Lamech: Lamech was 182 years old when his son Noah was born. Lamech named him Noah (meaning “Relief”) because he said, “He will bring us relief from the hard work of farming this ground which God has cursed.” Afterwards Lamech lived 595 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 777.

³² Noah: Noah was 500 years old and had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

6 ^1-2 Now a population explosion took place upon the earth. It was at this time that beings from the spirit world^[v] looked upon the beautiful earth women and took any they desired to be their wives. ³ Then Jehovah said, “My Spirit must not forever be disgraced in man, wholly evil as he is. I will give him 120 years to mend his ways.”

⁴ In those days, and even afterwards, when the evil beings from the spirit world were sexually involved with human women, their children became giants, of whom so many legends are told. ⁵ When the Lord God saw the extent of human wickedness, and that the trend and direction of men’s lives were only towards evil, ⁶ he was sorry he had made them. It broke his heart.

⁷ And he said, “I will blot out from the face of the earth all mankind that I created. Yes, and the animals too, and the reptiles and the birds. For I am sorry I made them.”

⁸ But Noah was a pleasure to the Lord. Here is the story of Noah: ^9-10 He was the only truly righteous man living on the earth at that time. He tried always to conduct his affairs according to God’s will. And he had three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹ Meanwhile, the crime rate was rising rapidly across the earth, and, as seen by God, the world was rotten to the core.

^12-13 As God observed how bad it was, and saw that all mankind was vicious and depraved, he said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy all mankind; for the earth is filled with crime because of man. Yes, I will destroy mankind from the earth. ¹⁴ Make a boat from resinous wood, sealing it with tar; and construct decks and stalls throughout the ship. ¹⁵ Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. ¹⁶ Construct a skylight all the way around the ship, eighteen inches below the roof; and make three decks inside the boat—a bottom, middle, and upper deck—and put a door in the side.

¹⁷ “Look! I am going to cover the earth with a flood and destroy every living being—everything in which there is the breath of life. All will die. ¹⁸ But I promise to keep you safe in the ship, with your wife and your sons and their wives. ^19-20 Bring a pair of every animal—a male and a female—into the boat with you, to keep them alive through the flood. Bring in a pair of each kind of bird and animal and reptile. ²¹ Store away in the boat all the food that they and you will need.” ²² And Noah did everything as God commanded him.

7 Finally the day came when the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I consider you alone to be righteous. ² Bring in the animals, too—a pair of each, except those kinds I have chosen for eating and for sacrifice: take seven pairs of each of them, ³ and seven pairs^[w] of every kind of bird. Thus there will be every kind of life reproducing again after the flood has ended. ⁴ One week from today I will begin forty days and nights of rain; and all the animals and birds and reptiles I have made will die.”

⁵ So Noah did everything the Lord commanded him. ⁶ He was 600 years old when the flood came. ⁷ He boarded the boat with his wife and sons and their wives, to escape the flood. ^8-9 With him were all the various kinds of animals—those for eating and sacrifice, and those that were not, and the birds and reptiles. They came into the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God commanded Noah.

^10-12 One week later, when Noah was 600 years, two months, and seventeen days old, the rain came down in mighty torrents from the sky, and the subterranean waters burst forth upon the earth for forty days and nights. ¹³ But Noah had gone into the boat that very day with his wife and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. ^14-15 With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of animal—domestic and wild—and reptiles and birds of every sort. ¹⁶ Two by two they came, male and female, just as God had commanded. Then the Lord God^[x] closed the door and shut them in.

¹⁷ For forty days the roaring floods prevailed, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. ¹⁸ As the water rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely upon it; ¹⁹ until finally the water covered all the high mountains under the whole heaven, ²⁰ standing twenty-two feet and more above the highest peaks. ²¹ And all living things upon the earth perished—birds, domestic and wild animals, and reptiles and all mankind— ²² everything that breathed and lived upon dry land. ²³ All existence on the earth was blotted out—man and animals alike, and reptiles and birds. God destroyed them all, leaving only Noah alive, and those with him in the boat. ²⁴ And the water covered the earth 150 days.

8 God didn’t forget about Noah and all the animals in the boat! He sent a wind to blow across the waters, and the floods began to disappear, ² for the subterranean water sources ceased their gushing, and the torrential rains subsided. ^3-4 So the flood gradually receded until, 150 days after it began, the boat came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ Three months later,^[y] as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks appeared.

⁶ After another forty days, Noah opened a porthole ⁷ and released a raven that flew back and forth^[z] until the earth was dry. ⁸ Meanwhile he sent out a dove to see if it could find dry ground, ⁹ but the dove found no place to light, and returned to Noah, for the water was still too high. So Noah held out his hand and drew the dove back into the boat.

¹⁰ Seven days later Noah released the dove again, ¹¹ and this time, toward evening, the bird returned to him with an olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the water was almost gone. ¹² A week later he released the dove again, and this time she didn’t come back.

¹³ Twenty-nine days after that,^[aa] Noah opened the door to look, and the water was gone. ¹⁴ Eight more weeks went by. Then at last the earth was dry. ^15-16 Then God told Noah, “You may all go out. ¹⁷ Release all the animals, birds, and reptiles, so that they will breed abundantly and reproduce in great numbers.” ^18-19 So the boat was soon empty. Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives all disembarked, along with all the animals, reptiles, and birds—all left the ark in pairs and groups.

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar and sacrificed on it some of the animals and birds God had designated^[ab] for that purpose. ²¹ And Jehovah was pleased with the sacrifice^[ac] and said to himself, “I will never do it again—I will never again curse the earth, destroying all living things, even though man’s bent is always toward evil from his earliest youth, and even though he does such wicked things. ²² As long as the earth remains, there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night.”

9 God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to have many children and to repopulate the earth.

^2-3 “All wild animals and birds and fish will be afraid of you,” God told him; “for I have placed them in your power, and they are yours to use for food, in addition to grain and vegetables. ⁴ But never eat animals unless their life-blood has been drained off. ^5-6 And murder is forbidden. Man-killing animals must die, and any man who murders shall be killed; for to kill a man is to kill one made like God. ⁷ Yes, have many children and repopulate the earth and subdue it.”

⁸ Then God told Noah and his sons, ^9-11 “I solemnly promise you and your children^[ad] and the animals you brought with you—all these birds and cattle and wild animals—that I will never again send another flood to destroy the earth. ¹² And I seal this promise with this sign: ¹³ I have placed my rainbow in the clouds as a sign of my promise until the end of time, to you and to all the earth. ¹⁴ When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will be seen in the clouds, ¹⁵ and I will remember my promise to you and to every being, that never again will the floods come and destroy all life. ^16-17 For I will see the rainbow in the cloud and remember my eternal promise to every living being on the earth.”

¹⁸ The names of Noah’s three sons were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the ancestor of the Canaanites.)^{[ae] 19} From these three sons of Noah came all the nations of the earth.

^20-21 Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard, and he made wine. One day as he was drunk and lay naked in his tent, ²² Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and went outside and told his two brothers. ²³ Then Shem and Japheth took a robe and held it over their shoulders and, walking backwards into the tent, let it fall across their father to cover his nakedness as they looked the other way. ^24-25 When Noah awoke from his drunken stupor, and learned what had happened and what Ham, his younger son, had done, he cursed Ham’s descendants:^[af]

^26-27 Then he said,

²⁸ Noah lived another 350 years after the flood ²⁹ and was 950 years old at his death.