Old/New Testament
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.’
27 God made humans.
He made them to be like himself.
He made some of them males and some of them females.
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.
The man and the woman turn away from God
3 The Lord God made many wild animals. But the snake was the most clever of them all. The snake asked the woman, ‘Did God say, “You must not eat the fruit from any tree in the garden”? Is that really true?’
2 The woman replied, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But God said, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch it. If you do that, you will die.” ’
4 Then the snake said to the woman, ‘No, you will not die. 5 God knows that when you eat the fruit from this tree, you will understand things. You will become like God himself. You will know about good things and evil things.’[q]
6 The woman looked at the fruit on the tree. She saw that it would be good to eat, and it was beautiful to look at. She wanted to eat it because it would make her become wise. So she took some fruit and she ate it. Then she gave some of the fruit to her husband who was with her. He also ate it.
7 Then they understood what they had done.[r] They realized that they were not wearing any clothes. So they took some leaves from fig trees. They tied them together to cover their bodies.
8 In the evening there was a nice cool wind. The Lord God walked in the garden. The man and the woman heard the sound of the Lord God. They hid themselves behind some trees, so that God would not see them. 9 The Lord God called out to the man. He said to him, ‘Where are you?’
10 The man replied, ‘I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because I had no clothes. So I hid myself from you.’
11 The Lord God said, ‘Who told you that you had no clothes? Have you eaten fruit from the tree that I said you must not eat?’
12 The man said, ‘It was the woman that you put here with me. She gave me some fruit from the tree. So I ate it.’
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘Why have you done a thing like that?’ The woman replied, ‘It was the snake. The snake deceived me with a lie. So I ate the fruit.’
14 The Lord God said to the snake,
‘Because you have done this, I will curse you.[s]
Among all the farm animals and wild animals,
you are the one that I will curse.
From now on, you will move across the ground on your stomach.
You will eat dust from the ground.
You will do this for your whole life.
15 I will cause you and the woman to become enemies.
Your descendants and her descendants will always be enemies.
One of her descendants will attack your head.[t]
You will attack his heel.’[u]
16 God said to the woman, ‘I will cause you to have great pain when you give birth to children. You will want to please your husband. But he will rule over you as your master.’
17 Then God said to Adam,[v] ‘You listened to your wife and you did what she said. You ate fruit from the tree after I told you, “You must not eat fruit from this tree.” Because you did that, I will curse the ground. You will have to work very hard to make plants grow in it for your food. It will be like this for your whole life. 18 Thorn bushes and thistles will grow in the ground.[w] But you will eat plants that grow in the fields. 19 You will have to work hard for a long time before you have any food to eat. You will do this for your whole life until you die. Then you will return into the ground. That is where you came from. I made you from the soil of the ground, and you will become soil again.’
20 Adam gave his wife a name. He called her Eve. This was because she would become the mother of all people.[x]
21 The Lord God made clothes for Adam and Eve to wear. He used the skins from animals to make them.
22 The Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us because he understands good and evil. So we must not let him take fruit from the tree that gives life. If he eats that fruit, he will live for ever.’
23 So the Lord God sent Adam out of the Garden of Eden. To get his food, Adam had to dig the ground that God had used to make him. 24 Then God put cherubs to be guards for the garden. God put them on the east side of the garden. There was also a sword of fire that moved quickly from side to side. As a result, nobody could go near to the tree that gives life.
The ancestors of Jesus Christ
1 This is a list of the ancestors of Jesus Christ. Jesus was from the family of King David. David was from the family of Abraham.[a]
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac.
Isaac was the father of Jacob.
Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.
3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah. Tamar was their mother.
Perez was the father of Hezron.
Hezron was the father of Ram.
4 Ram was the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab was the father of Nahshon.
Nahshon was the father of Salmon.
5 Salmon was the father of Boaz. Rahab was his mother.
Boaz was the father of Obed. Ruth was his mother.
Obed was the father of Jesse.
6 Jesse was the father of King David.
David was Solomon's father. Solomon's mother was the wife of Uriah.
7 Solomon was the father of Rehoboam.
Rehoboam was the father of Abijah.
Abijah was the father of Asa.
8 Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat.
Jehoshaphat was the father of Jehoram.
Jehoram was the father of Uzziah.
9 Uzziah was the father of Jotham.
Jotham was the father of Ahaz.
Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah.
10 Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh.
Manasseh was the father of Amon.
Amon was the father of Josiah.
11 Josiah was the father of Jeconiah and his brothers.
This was at the time when the Israelites' enemies took them away to Babylon.
12 Here is a list of Jesus' ancestors who lived after that time:
Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel.
Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel.
13 Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud.
Abiud was the father of Eliakim.
Eliakim was the father of Azor.
14 Azor was the father of Zadok.
Zadok was the father of Akim.
Akim was the father of Eliud.
15 Eliud was the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar was the father of Matthan.
Matthan was the father of Jacob.
16 Jacob was the father of Joseph.
Joseph married Mary. Mary was the mother of Jesus. Jesus is the one who is called Christ, the Messiah.[b]
17 So then, there were 14 generations from Abraham to David. There were another 14 generations from David to the time they took the Israelite people away to Babylon. Then there were 14 generations from that time until Jesus, the Messiah, was born.[c]
Jesus is born
18 This is how Jesus Christ was born. His mother's name was Mary. She had promised to marry a man called Joseph. Then she discovered that she was pregnant. This happened before they started to live together. It was the Holy Spirit that caused this to happen to her. 19 Joseph was a good man. He wanted to do what was right. He did not want her to become ashamed in front of people. So he decided to stop their marriage secretly.[d] 20 He thought about what he should do. Then an angel came from the Lord God to see him. The angel came to Joseph while he was dreaming. The angel said, ‘Joseph, you who are from the family of King David, take Mary home as your wife. Do not be afraid to do that. The baby that is growing inside her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 Mary's baby will be a boy. He will save his people from their sins.[e] Because of that, you must give him the name “Jesus”.’
22 The Lord God had given a message about this to one of his prophets long ago. Now that message would become true. 23 The prophet had said, ‘A young woman who has never had sex will have a baby boy. People will call her son Immanuel.’ This name means ‘God is with us’.
24 Then Joseph woke up from his sleep. He did what God's angel had said to him. He married Mary and he took her to his home. 25 Joseph did not have sex with Mary until after the baby boy was born. He said that the boy's name should be Jesus.
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