Genesis 2
Christian Standard Bible
2 So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed.(A) 2 On the seventh[a] day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested[b] on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.(B) 3 God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested(C) from all his work of creation.(D)
Man and Woman in the Garden
4 These are the records(E) of the heavens and the earth, concerning their creation. At the time[c] that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 no shrub of the field(F) had yet grown on the land,[d] and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. 6 But mist would come up from the earth and water all the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground(G) and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils,(H) and the man became a living being.(I)
8 The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east,(J) and there he placed the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden,(K) as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.(L)
10 A river went[e] out from Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became the source of four rivers.[f] 11 The name of the first is Pishon, which flows through the entire land of Havilah,[g](M) where there is gold. 12 Gold from that land is pure;[h] bdellium[i] and onyx[j] are also there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon, which flows through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris,(N) which runs east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.(O)
15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden,(P) 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”(Q) 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding(R) to him.” 19 The Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it.(S) And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man[k] no helper was found corresponding to him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man,(T) and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. 22 Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.(U) 23 And the man said:
This one, at last, is bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh;
this one will be called “woman,”
for she was taken from man.(V)
24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.(W) 25 Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.
Genesis 2
Contemporary English Version
2 So the heavens and the earth and everything else were created.
The Seventh Day
2 (A)(B) By the seventh day God had finished his work, and so he rested. 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it special, because on that day he rested from his work.
4 That's how God created the heavens and the earth.
The Garden of Eden
When the Lord God made the heavens and the earth, 5 no grass or plants were growing anywhere. God had not yet sent any rain, and there was no one to work the land. 6 But streams[a] came up from the ground and watered the earth.
7 (C) The Lord God took some soil from the ground and made a man.[b] God breathed life into the man, and the man started breathing. 8 The Lord made a garden in a place called Eden, which was in the east, and he put the man there.
9 (D) The Lord God filled the garden with all kinds of beautiful trees and fruit trees. Two other trees were in the middle of the garden. One of these gave life—the other gave the wisdom to know the difference between right and wrong.
10 From Eden a river flowed out to water the garden, then it divided into four rivers. 11 The first one is the Pishon River that flows through the land of Havilah, 12 where pure gold, rare perfumes, and precious stones are found. 13 The second is the Gihon River that winds through Ethiopia.[c] 14 The Tigris River that flows east of Assyria is the third, and the fourth is the Euphrates River.
15 The Lord God put the man in the Garden of Eden to take care of it and to look after it. 16 But the Lord told him, “You may eat fruit from any tree in the garden, 17 except the one that has the power to let you know the difference between right and wrong. If you eat any fruit from that tree, you will die before the day is over!”
18 The Lord God said, “It isn't good for the man to live alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.” 19-20 So the Lord took some soil and made animals and birds. He brought them to the man to see what names he would give each of them. Then the man named the tame animals and the birds and the wild animals. That's how they got their names.
None of these was the right kind of partner for the man. 21 So the Lord God made him fall into a deep sleep, and he took out one of the man's ribs. Then after closing the man's side, 22 the Lord made a woman out of the rib.
The Lord God brought her to the man, 23 and the man exclaimed,
“Here is someone like me!
She is part of my body,
my own flesh and bones.
She came from me, a man.
So I will name her Woman!”[d]
24 (E) That's why a man will leave his own father and mother. He marries a woman, and the two of them become like one person.
25 Although the man and his wife were both naked, they were not ashamed.
Footnotes
- 2.6 streams: Or “mist.”
- 2.7 man: In Hebrew “man” comes from the same word as “ground.”
- 2.13 Ethiopia: The Hebrew text has “Cush,” which was a region south of Egypt that included parts of the present countries of Ethiopia and Sudan.
- 2.23 a man … Woman: In Hebrew the words “man” and “woman” are similar.
Genesis 2
EasyEnglish Bible
2 In that way God finished making the heavens and the earth, and everything that was in them.
2 The seventh day came. Then God stopped the work that he had been doing. He had finished his work and he rested on the seventh day.
3 God blessed the seventh day. He made it a special day, because he had finished making everything. He did not work on that day.
God makes a man and a woman
4 This is what happened when God made the heavens and the earth.
When the Lord God made the heavens and the earth, 5 there were no plants or grasses growing on the earth.[a] That was because the Lord God had not sent any rain on the earth. Also, there was nobody to dig the soil so that plants would grow. 6 But streams of water were coming up from the earth. The water made all the top of the ground wet.
7 Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground and he made a man. He breathed air into the nose of the man to give him life. So the man became alive.
8 The Lord God planted a garden. It was in the east, in a place called Eden.[b] God took the man that he had made and he put him in the garden. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the ground there. The trees were beautiful to look at. The fruit from the trees was good for people to eat.[c] In the middle of the garden were two special trees. One was the tree that gives life. The other was the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is evil.[d]
10 A river began in Eden. It went through the garden and it gave water for the ground. After that, it became four separate rivers. 11 The name of the first river is the Pishon. It goes through the whole land of Havilah. There is gold in that land. 12 The gold there is very good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also in Havilah.[e]
13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It goes through the whole land of Cush. 14 The third river is called the Tigris. It goes along the east side of Assyria. The fourth river is called the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man and he put him in the Garden of Eden. God wanted the man to work in the garden and to take care of it. 16 Then the Lord God told the man, ‘You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden, as much as you like. 17 But you must not eat any fruit from the tree that gives knowledge of good and evil. If you do eat fruit from that tree, that day you will certainly die.’
18 Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to live alone. I will make a helper who is right for him.’[f]
19 The Lord God took soil from the ground and he made all the animals and birds. He brought them to the man. God wanted to know what names the man would call them. Whatever the man called each living thing, that became its name. 20 So the man gave names to the farm animals, to the birds in the sky and to all the other animals.
But none of these animals was the right helper for the man. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to sleep.[g] While the man was sleeping, God took a rib from the man. Then he closed up the place in his body and he covered it again.[h] 22 The Lord God used the man's rib to make a woman. He brought the woman to the man.
23 Then the man said, ‘Finally, this is someone who is right for me. She has bones that are taken from my bones. Her body comes from my body. I will call her “woman” because God used me, a man, to make her.’
24 Because of this, when a man marries, he leaves his father and his mother. Instead, God joins the man and his wife together. The two people become as one body.[i]
25 The man and his wife were not wearing any clothes. But they did not feel ashamed.
Footnotes
- 2:5 When we write Lord like this, it is a special name for God. Sometimes people write it as ‘Yahweh’, or as ‘Jehovah’. It means ‘I am who I am’. This shows that God has always been alive and he will always be alive.
- 2:8 ‘in the east’ means that it was east of the land of Canaan. Canaan was the land that God gave to his people as their home much later on.
- 2:9 Eden was a very good place for the man to live. Everything that the man needed was there.
- 2:9 Fruit from the first tree would cause people to live for ever with God. Fruit from the second tree would cause people to know about good things and bad things. They would understand the difference between these.
- 2:12 Bdellium is something that has a nice smell. It comes from certain trees when you cut them. Onyx is a valuable stone.
- 2:18 The helper was someone to live with the man. She would be the right person for him and would help him.
- 2:21 The Lord God caused the man to sleep. The man did not just sleep because he was tired. He would sleep like that until God made him wake.
- 2:21 A rib is a bone in the side of someone's body. God made the woman from the rib that he took from the man.
- 2:24 This verse tells us about how a man and his wife should live after their marriage. They become a new family that is separate from their parents' families.
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.