Beginning

The Beginning

1 In the beginning God made from nothing the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was an empty waste and darkness was over the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was moving over the top of the waters. ³ Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good. He divided the light from the darkness. ⁵ Then God called the light day, and He called the darkness night. There was evening and there was morning, one day.

⁶ Then God said, “Let there be an open space between the waters. Let it divide waters from waters.” ⁷ God made the open space, and divided the waters under the open space from the waters above the open space. And it was so. ⁸ Then God called the open space Heaven. There was evening and there was morning, the second day.

⁹ Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered into one place. Let the dry land be seen.” And it was so. ¹⁰ Then God called the dry land Earth. He called the gathering of the waters Seas. And God saw that it was good. ¹¹ Then God said, “Let plants grow from the earth, plants that have seeds. Let fruit trees grow on the earth that bring their kind of fruit with their own seeds.” And it was so. ¹² Plants grew out of the earth, giving their own kind of seeds. Trees grew with their fruit, and their kind of seeds. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ There was evening and there was morning, the third day.

¹⁴ Then God said, “Let there be lights in the open space of the heavens to divide day from night. Let them tell the days and years and times of the year. ¹⁵ Let them be lights in the open space of the heavens to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶ Then God made the two great lights, the brighter light to rule the day, and the smaller light to rule the night. He made the stars also. ¹⁷ God put them in the open space of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to rule the day and the night. He divided the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

²⁰ Then God said, “Let the waters be full of living things. Let birds fly above the earth in the open space of the heavens.” ²¹ God made the big animals that live in the sea, and every living thing that moves through the waters by its kind, and every winged bird after its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² God wanted good to come to them, saying, “Give birth to many. Grow in number. Fill the waters in the seas. Let birds grow in number on the earth.” ²³ There was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth bring into being living things after their kind: Cattle and things that move upon the ground, and wild animals of the earth after their kind.” And it was so. ²⁵ Then God made the wild animals of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing that moves upon the ground after its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man like Us and let him be head over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every thing that moves on the ground.” ²⁷ And God made man in His own likeness. In the likeness of God He made him. He made both male and female. ²⁸ And God wanted good to come to them, saying, “Give birth to many. Grow in number. Fill the earth and rule over it. Rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹ Then God said, “See, I have given you every plant that gives seeds that is on the earth, and every tree that has fruit that gives seeds. They will be food for you. ³⁰ I have given every green plant for food to every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to every thing that moves on the earth that has life.” And it was so. ³¹ God saw all that He had made and it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

2 So the heavens and the earth were completed, and all that is in them. ² 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 honored the seventh day and made it holy, because in it He rested from all His work which He had done.

The Garden of Eden

⁴ This is the story of the heavens and the earth when they were made, in the day the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. ⁵ Now no bush of the field was yet on the earth. And no plant of the field had started to grow. For the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth. And there was no man to work the ground. ⁶ But a fog came from the earth and watered the whole top of the ground. ⁷ Then the Lord God made man from the dust of the ground. And He breathed into his nose the breath of life. Man became a living being. ⁸ The Lord God planted a garden to the east in Eden. He put the man there whom He had made. ⁹ And the Lord God made to grow out of the ground every tree that is pleasing to the eyes and good for food. And He made the tree of life grow in the center of the garden, and the tree of learning of good and bad.

¹⁰ Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. And from there it divided and became four rivers. ¹¹ The name of the first is Pishon. It flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² The gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are there. ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon. It flows around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴ The name of the third river is Tigris. It flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work the ground and care for it. ¹⁶ The Lord God told the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden. ¹⁷ But do not eat from the tree of learning of good and bad. For the day you eat from it you will die for sure.”

¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper that is right for him.” ¹⁹ Out of the ground the Lord God made every animal of the field and every bird of the sky. He brought them to the man to find out what he would call them. And whatever the man called a living thing, that was its name. ²⁰ Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field. But there was no helper found that was right for Adam. ²¹ So the Lord God put the man to sleep as if he were dead. And while he was sleeping, He took one of the bones from his side and closed up the place with flesh. ²² The Lord God made woman from the bone which He had taken from the man. And He brought her to the man. ²³ The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” ²⁴ For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother, and will be joined to his wife. And they will become one flesh. ²⁵ The man and his wife were both without clothes and were not ashamed.

Man Does Not Obey God

3 Now the snake was more able to fool others than any animal of the field which the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say that you should not eat from any tree in the garden?” ² Then the woman said to the snake, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden. ³ But from the tree which is in the center of the garden, God has said, ‘Do not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ The snake said to the woman, “No, you for sure will not die! ⁵ For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and bad.” ⁶ The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasing to the eyes, and could fill the desire of making one wise. So she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were without clothes. So they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves clothing.

⁸ Then they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening. The man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man. He said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ And the man said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden. I was afraid because I was without clothes. So I hid myself.” ¹¹ The Lord God said, “Who told you that you were without clothes? Have you eaten from the tree of which I told you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The snake fooled me, and I ate.”

¹⁴ Then the Lord God said to the snake, “Because you have done this, you will be hated and will suffer more than all cattle, and more than every animal of the field. You will go on your stomach and you will eat dust all the days of your life. ¹⁵ And I will make you and the woman hate each other, and your seed and her seed will hate each other. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.”

¹⁶ To the woman He said, “I will make your pain much worse in giving birth. You will give birth to children in pain. Yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

¹⁷ Then He said to Adam, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I told you, “Do not eat from it,” the ground is cursed because of you. By hard work you will eat food from it all the days of your life. ¹⁸ It will grow thorns and thistles for you. You will eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹ You will eat bread by the sweat of your face because of hard work, until you return to the ground, because you were taken from the ground. You are dust, and you will return to dust.”

²⁰ The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. ²¹ And the Lord God made clothes of skins for Adam and his wife, and dressed them.

²² Then the Lord God said, “See, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and bad. Now then, he might put out his hand to take from the tree of life also, and eat and live forever.” ²³ So the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ So He drove the man out. And He placed cherubim east of the garden of Eden with a sword of fire that turned every way. They kept watch over the path to the tree of life.