⁷ then the Lord God formed the man of ^(A)dust from the ground and ^(B)breathed into his ^(C)nostrils the breath of life, and ^(D)the man became a living creature. ⁸ And the Lord God planted a ^(E)garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹ And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. ^(F)The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, ^(G)and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁰ A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. ¹¹ The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of ^(H)Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. ¹³ The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴ And the name of the third river is the ^(I)Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man ^(J)and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ^(K)you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat^[a] of it you ^(L)shall surely die.”

^19 (A)I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For ^(B)just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members ^(C)as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

^20 (D)For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ^21 (E)But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things ^(F)of which you are now ashamed? ^(G)For the end of those things is death. ²² But now that you ^(H)have been set free from sin and ^(I)have become slaves of God, ^(J)the fruit you get leads to sanctification and ^(K)its end, eternal life. ^23 (L)For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand

8 ^(A)In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, ^2 (B)“I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. ³ And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” ⁴ And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” ⁵ And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, ^(C)“Seven.” ⁶ And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and ^(D)having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. ⁷ And they had a few small fish. And ^(E)having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. ⁸ And ^(F)they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, ^(G)seven baskets full. ⁹ And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.