Genesis 1–2

The Story of Creation

1In the beginning, when God created the universe,^{a 2}the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the Spirit of God^b was moving over the water. ^3*Then God commanded, “Let there be light”—and light appeared. ⁴God was pleased with what he saw. Then he separated the light from the darkness, ⁵and he named the light “Day” and the darkness “Night”. Evening passed and morning came—that was the first day.

^6–7*Then God commanded, “Let there be a dome to divide the water and to keep it in two separate places”—and it was done. So God made a dome, and it separated the water under it from the water above it. ^8*He named the dome “Sky”. Evening passed and morning came—that was the second day.

⁹Then God commanded, “Let the water below the sky come together in one place, so that the land will appear”—and it was done. ¹⁰He named the land “Earth”, and the water which had come together he named “Sea”. And God was pleased with what he saw. ¹¹Then he commanded, “Let the earth produce all kinds of plants, those that bear grain and those that bear fruit”—and it was done. ¹²So the earth produced all kinds of plants, and God was pleased with what he saw. ¹³Evening passed and morning came—that was the third day.

¹⁴Then God commanded, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate day from night and to show the time when days, years, and religious festivals^c begin; ¹⁵they will shine in the sky to give light to the earth”—and it was done. ¹⁶So God made the two larger lights, the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule over the night; he also made the stars. ¹⁷He placed the lights in the sky to shine on the earth, ¹⁸to rule over the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God was pleased with what he saw. ¹⁹Evening passed and morning came—that was the fourth day.

²⁰Then God commanded, “Let the water be filled with many kinds of living beings, and let the air be filled with birds.” ²¹So God created the great sea monsters, all kinds of creatures that live in the water, and all kinds of birds. And God was pleased with what he saw. ²²He blessed them all and told the creatures that live in the water to reproduce, and to fill the sea, and he told the birds to increase in number. ²³Evening passed and morning came—that was the fifth day.

²⁴Then God commanded, “Let the earth produce all kinds of animal life: domestic and wild, large and small”—and it was done. ²⁵So God made them all, and he was pleased with what he saw.

^26*Then God said, “And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us. They will have power over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild,^d large and small.” ^27*So God created human beings, making them to be like himself. He created them male and female, ^28*blessed them, and said, “Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control. I am putting you in charge of the fish, the birds, and all the wild animals. ²⁹I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat; ³⁰but for all the wild animals and for all the birds I have provided grass and leafy plants for food”—and it was done. ³¹God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased. Evening passed and morning came—that was the sixth day.

2And so the whole universe was completed. ^2*By the seventh day God finished what he had been doing and stopped working. ^3*He blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a special day, because by that day he had completed his creation^e and stopped working. ⁴And that is how the universe was created.

The Garden of Eden

When the Lord^f God made the universe, ⁵there were no plants on the earth and no seeds had sprouted, because he had not sent any rain, and there was no one to cultivate the land; ⁶but water would come up from beneath the surface and water the ground.

^7*Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground^g and formed a man^h out of it; he breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live.

⁸Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the East, and there he put the man he had formed. ^9*He made all kinds of beautiful trees grow there and produce good fruit. In the middle of the garden stood the tree that gives life and the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad.ⁱ

¹⁰A stream flowed in Eden and watered the garden; beyond Eden it divided into four rivers. ¹¹The first river is the Pishon; it flows round the country of Havilah. ¹²(Pure gold is found there and also rare perfume and precious stones.) ¹³The second river is the Gihon; it flows round the country of Cush.^{j 14}The third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵Then the Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it. ¹⁶He said to him, “You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, ¹⁷except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad.^k You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.”

¹⁸Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to live alone. I will make a suitable companion to help him.” ¹⁹So he took some soil from the ground and formed all the animals and all the birds. Then he brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and that is how they all got their names. ²⁰So the man named all the birds and all the animals; but not one of them was a suitable companion to help him.

²¹Then the Lord God made the man fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the flesh. ²²He formed a woman out of the rib and brought her to him. ²³Then the man said,

“At last, here is one of my own kind—

Bone taken from my bone, and flesh from my flesh.

‘Woman’ is her name because she was taken out of man.”^l

^24*That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united with his wife, and they become one.

²⁵The man and the woman were both naked, but they were not embarrassed.