Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The sons of Korah wrote this special song for the music leader.

The city of God^[a]

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.

⁶ God promised good things to Israel's people. But I am not saying that what God promised did not happen. It is clear that not all of Israel's people are God's true people. ⁷ Not all of them are true descendants of Abraham. God told Abraham, ‘It is only Isaac that I will call the father of your descendants.’

⁸ This means that not all of Abraham's children are really God's children. It is only those children who were born as a result of God's promise. Only they are the people that God calls true descendants. ⁹ This is what God promised to Abraham: ‘At this time next year I will come back. Then Sarah, your wife, will have a son.’^[a]

¹⁰ Remember this too: Later, Isaac's wife, Rebekah, gave birth to twins. Those two sons had the same father, who was our ancestor, Isaac. ¹¹ And God spoke to Rebekah before her sons were born. God spoke before the boys had done anything either good or bad. God did this to show clearly that he himself was choosing one child. He was not choosing someone because of what that person had done. He himself decided who he would choose. ¹² God said to Rebekah, ‘The older son will serve the younger son.’ ¹³ This is written in the Bible: ‘I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.’^[b]