Genesis 1:24-2:19

New King James Version

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. ²⁵ And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, ^(A)“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; ^(B)let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over ^[a]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ So God created man ^(C)in His own image; in the image of God He created him; ^(D)male and female He created them. ²⁸ Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ^(E)“Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and ^(F)subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that ^[b]moves on the earth.”

²⁹ And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; ^(G)to you it shall be for food. ³⁰ Also, to ^(H)every beast of the earth, to every ^(I)bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is ^[c]life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. ³¹ Then ^(J)God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

The Garden of Eden

2 Thus the heavens and the earth, and ^(K)all the host of them, were finished. ^2 (L)And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. ³ Then God ^(M)blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

^4 (N)This is the ^[d]history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, ⁵ before any ^(O)plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not ^(P)caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man ^(Q)to till the ground; ⁶ but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

⁷ And the Lord God formed man of the ^(R)dust of the ground, and ^(S)breathed into his ^(T)nostrils the breath of life; and ^(U)man became a living being.

Life in God’s Garden

⁸ The Lord God planted ^(V)a garden ^(W)eastward in ^(X)Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. ⁹ And out of the ground the Lord God made ^(Y)every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. ^(Z)The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and ^(AA)evil.

¹⁰ Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. ¹¹ The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts ^(AB)the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² And the gold of that land is good. ^(AC)Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴ The name of the third river is ^(AD)Hiddekel;^[e] it is the one which goes toward the east of ^[f]Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ Then the Lord God took ^[g]the man and put him in the garden of Eden to ^[h]tend and keep it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ^(AE)you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it ^(AF)you^[i] shall surely ^(AG)die.”

¹⁸ And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; ^(AH)I will make him a helper comparable to him.” ^19 (AI)Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and ^(AJ)brought them to ^[j]Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.