The History of Creation^(A)

1 In the ^(B)beginning ^(C)God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was ^(D)without form, and void; and darkness ^[a]was on the face of the deep. ^(E)And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

^3 (F)Then God said, ^(G)“Let there be ^(H)light”; and there was light. ⁴ And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light Day, and the ^(I)darkness He called Night. ^[b]So the evening and the morning were the first day.

⁶ Then God said, ^(J)“Let there be a ^[c]firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” ⁷ Thus God made the firmament, ^(K)and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were ^(L)above the firmament; and it was so. ⁸ And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

⁹ Then God said, ^(M)“Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and ^(N)let the dry land appear”; and it was so. ¹⁰ And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

God’s Covenant with Creation

²⁰ Then Noah built an ^(A)altar to the Lord, and took of ^(B)every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered ^(C)burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ And the Lord smelled ^(D)a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again ^(E)curse the ground for man’s sake, although the ^(F)imagination^[a] of man’s heart is evil from his youth; ^(G)nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

⁸ Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: ⁹ “And as for Me, ^(A)behold, I establish ^(B)My covenant with you and with your ^[a]descendants after you, ^10 (C)and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. ¹¹ Thus ^(D)I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹² And God said: ^(E)“This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³ I set ^(F)My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; ¹⁵ and ^(G)I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember ^(H)the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

⁵ So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that ^(A)Jacob ^(B)gave to his son Joseph. ⁶ Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” ⁸ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

⁹ Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For ^(C)Jews have no dealings with ^(D)Samaritans.

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the ^(E)gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you ^(F)living water.”

¹¹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? ¹² Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but ^(G)whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him ^(H)will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

^15 (I)The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”