Genesis 1:1-6:8

Names of God Bible

The Creation

1 In the beginning Elohim created heaven and earth.

² The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep water. The Ruach Elohim was hovering over the water.

³ Then Elohim said, “Let there be light!” So there was light. ⁴ Elohim saw the light was good. So Elohim separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ Elohim named the light day, and the darkness he named night. There was evening, then morning—the first day.

⁶ Then Elohim said, “Let there be a horizon in the middle of the water in order to separate the water.” ⁷ So Elohim made the horizon and separated the water above and below the horizon. And so it was. ⁸ Elohim named what was above the horizon sky. There was evening, then morning—a second day.

⁹ Then Elohim said, “Let the water under the sky come together in one area, and let the dry land appear.” And so it was. ¹⁰ Elohim named the dry land earth. The water which came together he named sea. Elohim saw that it was good. ¹¹ Then Elohim said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: plants bearing seeds, each according to its own type, and fruit trees bearing fruit with seeds, each according to its own type.” And so it was. ¹² The earth produced vegetation: plants bearing seeds, each according to its own type, and trees bearing fruit with seeds, each according to its own type. Elohim saw that they were good. ¹³ There was evening, then morning—a third day.

¹⁴ Then Elohim said, “Let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night. They will be signs and will mark religious festivals, days, and years. ¹⁵ They will be lights in the sky to shine on the earth.” And so it was. ¹⁶ Elohim made the two bright lights: the larger light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ Elohim put them in the sky to give light to the earth, ¹⁸ to dominate the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. Elohim saw that it was good. ¹⁹ There was evening, then morning—a fourth day.

²⁰ Then Elohim said, “Let the water swarm with swimming creatures, and let birds fly through the sky over the earth.” ²¹ So Elohim created the large sea creatures, every type of creature that swims around in the water and every type of flying bird. Elohim saw that they were good. ²² Elohim blessed them and said, “Be fertile, increase in number, fill the sea, and let there be many birds on the earth.” ²³ There was evening, then morning—a fifth day.

²⁴ Then Elohim said, “Let the earth produce every type of living creature: every type of domestic animal, crawling animal, and wild animal.” And so it was. ²⁵ Elohim made every type of wild animal, every type of domestic animal, and every type of creature that crawls on the ground. Elohim saw that they were good.

²⁶ Then Elohim said, “Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness. Let them rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the domestic animals all over the earth, and all the animals that crawl on the earth.”

²⁸ Elohim blessed them and said, “Be fertile, increase in number, fill the earth, and be its master. Rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that crawl on the earth.”

²⁹ Elohim said, “I have given you every plant with seeds on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds. This will be your food. ³⁰ I have given all green plants as food to every land animal, every bird in the sky, and every animal that crawls on the earth—every living, breathing animal.” And so it was.

³¹ And Elohim saw everything that he had made and that it was very good. There was evening, then morning—the sixth day.

2 Heaven and earth and everything in them were finished. ² By the seventh day Elohim had finished the work he had been doing. On the seventh day he stopped the work he had been doing. ³ Then Elohim blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on that day he stopped all his work of creation.

The Creation of Man and Woman

⁴ This is the account of heaven and earth when they were created, at the time when Yahweh Elohim made earth and heaven.

⁵ Wild bushes and plants were not on the earth yet because Yahweh Elohim hadn’t sent rain on the earth. Also, there was no one to farm the land. ⁶ Instead, underground water would come up from the earth and water the entire surface of the ground.

⁷ Then Yahweh Elohim formed the man from the dust of the earth^[a] and blew the breath of life into his nostrils. The man became a living being.

⁸ Yahweh Elohim planted a garden in Eden, in the east. That’s where he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹ Yahweh Elohim made all the trees grow out of the ground. These trees were nice to look at, and their fruit was good to eat. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil grew in the middle of the garden.

¹⁰ A river flowed from Eden to water the garden. Outside the garden it divided into four rivers. ¹¹ The name of the first river is Pishon. This is the one that winds throughout Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² (The gold of that land is pure. Bdellium^[b] and onyx are also found there.) ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon. This is the one that winds throughout Sudan. ¹⁴ The name of the third river is Tigris. This is the one that flows east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ Then Yahweh Elohim took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to farm the land and to take care of it. ¹⁶ Yahweh Elohim commanded the man. He said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden. ¹⁷ But you must never eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because when you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

¹⁸ Then Yahweh Elohim said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is right for him.”

¹⁹ Yahweh Elohim had formed all the wild animals and all the birds out of the ground. Then he brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called each creature became its name. ²⁰ So the man named all the domestic animals, all the birds, and all the wild animals.

But the man found no helper who was right for him. ²¹ So Yahweh Elohim caused him to fall into a deep sleep. While the man was sleeping, Yahweh Elohim took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. ²² Then Yahweh Elohim formed a woman from the rib that he had taken from the man. He brought her to the man.

²³ The man said,

²⁴ That is why a man will leave his father and mother and will be united with his wife, and they will become one flesh. ²⁵ The man and his wife were both naked, but they weren’t ashamed of it.

The First Sin and the First Promise

3 The snake was more clever than all the wild animals Yahweh Elohim had made. He asked the woman, “Did Elohim really say, ‘You must never eat the fruit of any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman answered the snake, “We’re allowed to eat the fruit from any tree in the garden ³ except the tree in the middle of the garden. Elohim said, ‘You must never eat it or touch it. If you do, you will die!’”

⁴ “You certainly won’t die!” the snake told the woman. ⁵ “Elohim knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened. You’ll be like Elohim, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ The woman saw that the tree had fruit that was good to eat, nice to look at, and desirable for making someone wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

⁷ Then their eyes were opened, and they both realized that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made clothes for themselves.

⁸ In the cool of the evening, the man and his wife heard Yahweh Elohim walking around in the garden. So they hid from Yahweh Elohim among the trees in the garden. ⁹ Yahweh Elohim called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

¹¹ Elohim asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹² The man answered, “That woman, the one you gave me, gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then Yahweh Elohim asked the woman, “What have you done?”

“The snake deceived me, and I ate,” the woman answered.

¹⁴ So Yahweh Elohim said to the snake, “Because you have done this,

¹⁶ He said to the woman,

¹⁷ Then he said to the man, “You listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree, although I commanded you, ‘You must never eat its fruit.’

²⁰ Adam named his wife Eve [Life] because she became the mother of every living person.

²¹ Yahweh Elohim made clothes from animal skins for the man and his wife and dressed them.

²² Then Yahweh Elohim said, “The man has become like one of us, since he knows good and evil. He must not reach out and take the fruit from the tree of life and eat. Then he would live forever.” ²³ So Yahweh Elohim sent the man out of the Garden of Eden to farm the ground from which the man had been formed. ²⁴ After he sent the man out, Elohim placed angels^[c] and a flaming sword that turned in all directions east of the Garden of Eden. He placed them there to guard the way to the tree of life.

Cain Murders Abel

4 Adam made love to his wife Eve. She became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I have gotten the man that Yahweh promised.” ² Then she gave birth to another child, Abel, Cain’s brother. Abel was a shepherd, and Cain was a farmer.

³ Later Cain brought some crops from the land as an offering to Yahweh. ⁴ Abel also brought some choice parts of the firstborn animals from his flock. Yahweh approved of Abel and his offering, ⁵ but he didn’t approve of Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry and was disappointed. ⁶ Then Yahweh asked Cain, “Why are you angry, and why do you look disappointed? ⁷ If you do well, won’t you be accepted? But if you don’t do well, sin is lying outside your door ready to attack. It wants to control you, but you must master it.”

⁸ Cain talked to his brother Abel. Later, when they were in the fields, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

⁹ Yahweh asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he answered. “Am I supposed to take care of my brother?”

¹⁰ Yahweh asked, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground. ¹¹ So now you are cursed from the ground, which has received the blood of your brother whom you killed. ¹² When you farm the ground, it will no longer yield its best for you. You will be a fugitive, a wanderer on the earth.”

¹³ But Cain said to Yahweh, “My punishment is more than I can stand! ¹⁴ You have forced me off this land today. I have to hide from you and become a fugitive, a wanderer on the earth. Now anyone who finds me will kill me!”

¹⁵ So Yahweh said to him, “Not so! Anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Yahweh gave Cain a sign so that anyone meeting him would not kill him.

¹⁶ Then Cain left Yahweh’s presence and lived in Nod [The Land of Wandering], east of Eden.

Cain’s Ten Descendants—Cain to Lamech

¹⁷ Cain made love to his wife. She became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was building a city, and he named it Enoch after his son. ¹⁸ To Enoch was born Irad. Irad was the father of Mehujael. Mehujael was the father of Methushael. And Methushael was the father of Lamech.

¹⁹ Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. ²⁰ Adah gave birth to Jabal. He was the first person to live in tents and have livestock. ²¹ His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the first person to play the harp and the flute. ²² Zillah also had a son, Tubalcain, who made bronze and iron tools. Tubalcain’s sister was Naamah.

²³ Lamech said to his wives,

Adam’s Godly Descendants—Adam to Enosh

²⁵ Adam made love to his wife again. She gave birth to a son and named him Seth, because she said, “Elohim has given^[d] me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.”

²⁶ A son was also born to Seth, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to worship Yahweh.

Adam’s Ten Descendants—Adam to Noah^(A)

5 This is the written account of Adam and his descendants.

³ When Adam was 130 years old, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, in his own image. He named him Seth. ⁴ After Adam became the father of Seth, he lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. ⁵ Adam lived a total of 930 years; then he died.

⁶ When Seth was 105 years old, he became the father of Enosh. ⁷ After he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. ⁸ Seth lived a total of 912 years; then he died.

⁹ When Enosh was 90 years old, he became the father of Kenan. ¹⁰ After he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹¹ Enosh lived a total of 905 years; then he died.

¹² When Kenan was 70 years old, he became the father of Mahalalel. ¹³ After he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁴ Kenan lived a total of 910 years; then he died.

¹⁵ When Mahalalel was 65 years old, he became the father of Jared. ¹⁶ After he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁷ Mahalalel lived a total of 895 years; then he died.

¹⁸ When Jared was 162 years old, he became the father of Enoch. ¹⁹ After he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁰ Jared lived a total of 962 years; then he died.

²¹ When Enoch was 65 years old, he became the father of Methuselah. ²² After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with Elohim for 300 years and had other sons and daughters. ²³ Enoch lived a total of 365 years. ²⁴ Enoch walked with Elohim; then he was gone because Elohim took him.

²⁵ When Methuselah was 187 years old, he became the father of Lamech. ²⁶ After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁷ Methuselah lived a total of 969 years; then he died.

²⁸ When Lamech was 182 years old, he became the father of a son. ²⁹ He named him Noah [Relief], and said, “This child will bring us relief from the work and painful labor of our hands since Yahweh has cursed the ground.” ³⁰ After Lamech became the father of Noah, he lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. ³¹ Lamech lived a total of 777 years; then he died.

³² When Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Evil Increases on the Earth

6 The number of people increased all over the earth, and daughters were born to them. ² The sons of Elohim saw that the daughters of other humans were beautiful. So they married any woman they chose.

³ Then Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not struggle with humans forever, because they are flesh and blood. They will live 120 years.”

⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, as well as later, when the sons of Elohim slept with the daughters of other humans and had children by them. These children were famous long ago.

⁵ Yahweh saw how evil humans had become on the earth. All day long their deepest thoughts were nothing but evil. ⁶ Yahweh was sorry that he had made humans on the earth, and he was heartbroken. ⁷ So Yahweh said, “I will wipe off the face of the earth these humans that I created. I will wipe out not only humans, but also domestic animals, crawling animals, and birds. I’m sorry that I made them.” ⁸ But Yahweh was pleased with Noah.