Genesis 2:1–3

2:1 The heavens and the earth1 were completed with everything that was in them.2 2:2 By3 the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing,4 and he ceased5 on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing. 2:3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy6 because on it he ceased all the work that he7 had been doing in creation.8

Sign up for the Verse of the Day

Get beautiful Bible art delivered to your inbox. We’ll send you a new verse every day to download or share.

1	tn See the note on the phrase “the heavens and the earth” in 1:1.
2	tn Heb “and all the host of them.” Here the “host” refers to all the entities and creatures that God created to populate the world.
3	tn Heb “on/in the seventh day.”
4	tn Heb “his work which he did [or “made”].”
5	tn The Hebrew term שָׁבַּת (shabbat) can be translated “to rest” (“and he rested”) but it basically means “to cease.” This is not a rest from exhaustion; it is the cessation of the work of creation.
6	tn The verb is usually translated “and sanctified it.” The Piel verb קִדֵּשׁ (qiddesh) means “to make something holy; to set something apart; to distinguish it.” On the literal level the phrase means essentially that God made this day different. But within the context of the Law, it means that the day belonged to God; it was for rest from ordinary labor, worship, and spiritual service. The day belonged to God.
7	tn Heb “God.” The pronoun (“he”) has been employed in the translation for stylistic reasons.
8	tn Heb “for on it he ceased from all his work which God created to make.” The last infinitive construct and the verb before it form a verbal hendiadys, the infinitive becoming the modifier—“which God creatively made,” or “which God made in his creating.”