Genesis 1-2

EasyEnglish Bible

God makes the earth

1 In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without shape and it was empty. Deep water covered the earth and everywhere was dark. The Spirit of God moved above the water.^[a]

³ God said, ‘There will be light!’

And there was light.

⁴ God saw that the light was good.

He caused the light and the dark to be separate.

⁵ God called the light ‘day’. He called the dark ‘night’.

Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the first day.^[b]

⁶ Then God said, ‘A wide space will appear between the waters. So the waters will be in two separate places.’

⁷ So God made this wide space. He made the water under the space separate from the water that was above it. What God said happened.

⁸ God called the wide space ‘sky’.

Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the second day.

⁹ God said, ‘The water that is under the sky will come together in one place. Then dry ground will appear.’

And what God said happened.

¹⁰ God called the dry ground ‘land’. He called the water that had come together ‘sea’.

God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.

¹¹ Then God said, ‘The land will cause plants to grow. There will be plants with their seeds and trees with their fruits. Each kind of plant and tree will have its own seeds and fruits.’

And what God said happened.

¹² All kinds of plants and trees began to grow in the ground. The plants made seeds. The trees made fruits with seeds in them. Each plant made its own kind of seeds.

God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.

¹³ Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the third day.

¹⁴ God said, ‘There will be lights all across the sky.^[c] They will make the day different from the night. They will show the seasons, days and years. ¹⁵ The lights in the sky will give light to the earth.’

And what God said happened.

¹⁶ God made two great lights. The brighter light ruled over the day. The less bright light ruled over the night. God also made the stars.

¹⁷ God put all these lights in the sky to shine their light on the earth.

¹⁸ They were to rule over the day and night. They were to make the time of light separate from the time of dark.

God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.

¹⁹ Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the fourth day.

²⁰ God said, ‘The waters will become full with many living things. Birds will appear and fly above the earth, all across the sky.’

²¹ God made big animals to live in the sea. He made every different kind of living thing that filled the sea. He made every different kind of bird to fly in the sky.

God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.

²² God blessed the animals and the birds. He said to them, ‘Give birth to many young ones, so that you grow in number. Fill all the water in the seas. The birds also should become very many, all across the earth.’^[d]

²³ Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the fifth day.

²⁴ God said, ‘Different kinds of animals will now appear on the land. There will be farm animals and wild animals. There will also be other small animals that move along the ground. There will be many kinds of animals and each kind will be different.’^[e]

And what God said happened.

²⁵ God made the different kinds of wild animals and the different kinds of farm animals. He made all the different kinds of animals that move along the ground.

God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, ‘We will make humans so that they are very much like us.^[f] They will rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky. They will rule over the farm animals. They will rule over the whole earth and all the animals that move along the ground.’

²⁸ God blessed them. He said to them, ‘Give birth to children. Grow in number. Fill the earth and rule over it. Rule over the fish in the sea. Rule over the birds in the sky. Rule over every different kind of living animal that moves along the ground.’^[g]

²⁹ Then God said, ‘Listen! I now give to you every plant on the earth as your food. I give you every plant that has seeds in it. I give you every tree that has fruit with a seed in it. I give them to you for your food.

³⁰ I give to the animals green plants for their food. It will be food for all the animals on the earth, all the birds in the sky and all the animals that move along the ground. Everything that has life may eat every kind of green plant.’

And what God said happened.

³¹ God looked at everything that he had made. He saw that it was very good.

Evening passed. And then it was morning.

That was the sixth day.

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.^[h] 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.^[i] 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.^[j] 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.^[k]

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.^[l]

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.’^[m]

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.^[n] 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.^{[o] 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.^[p]

²⁵ The man and his wife were not wearing any clothes. But they did not feel ashamed.