²By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day he rested from all of his work. ³God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. He rested on it. After he had created everything, he rested from all of the work he had done.

Adam and Eve

⁴Here is the story of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

The Lord God made the earth and the heavens. ⁵At that time, bushes had not appeared on the earth. Plants had not come up in the fields. The Lord God had not sent rain on the earth. And there wasn’t any man to work the ground. ⁶But streams came up from the earth. They watered the whole surface of the ground.

⁷Then the Lord God formed a man. He made him out of the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into him. And the man became a living person.

⁸The Lord God had planted a garden in the east. It was in Eden. There he put the man he had formed. ⁹The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground. Their fruit was pleasing to look at and good to eat.

The tree that gives life forever was in the middle of the garden. The tree that gives the ability to tell the difference between good and evil was also there.

¹⁰A river watered the garden. It flowed from Eden. From there it separated into four other rivers.

¹¹The name of the first river is the Pishon. It winds through the whole land of Havilah. Gold is found there. ¹²The gold of that land is good. Onyx and sweet-smelling resin are also found there.

¹³The name of the second river is the Gihon. It winds through the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴The name of the third river is the Tigris. It runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵The Lord God put the man in the Garden of Eden. He put him there to work its ground and to take care of it.

¹⁶The Lord God gave the man a command. He said, “You can eat the fruit of any tree that is in the garden. ¹⁷But you must not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you can be sure that you will die.”

¹⁸The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

¹⁹The Lord God had formed all of the wild animals. He had also formed all of the birds of the air. He had made all of them out of the ground. He brought them to the man to see what names he would give them. And the name the man gave each living creature became its name.

²⁰So the man gave names to all of the livestock. He gave names to all of the birds of the air. And he gave names to all of the wild animals.

But Adam didn’t find a helper that was right for him. ²¹So the Lord God caused him to fall into a deep sleep. While the man was sleeping, the Lord God took out one of his ribs. He closed up the opening that was in his side.

²²Then the Lord God made a woman. He made her from the rib he had taken out of the man. And he brought her to him.

²³The man said,

“Her bones have come from my bones.

Her body has come from my body.

She will be named ‘woman,’

because she was taken out of a man.”

²⁴That’s why a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. The two of them will become one.

²⁵The man and his wife were both naked. They didn’t feel any shame.

Adam and Eve Fall Into Sin

3The serpent was more clever than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. The serpent said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat the fruit of any tree that is in the garden’?”

²The woman said to the serpent, “We can eat the fruit of the trees that are in the garden. ³But God did say, ‘You must not eat the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. Do not even touch it. If you do, you will die.’ ”

⁴“You can be sure that you won’t die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵“God knows that when you eat the fruit of that tree, you will know things you have never known before. You will be able to tell the difference between good and evil. You will be like God.”

⁶The woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good to eat. It was also pleasing to look at. And it would make a person wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. And he ate it.

⁷Then both of them knew things they had never known before. They realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made clothes for themselves.

⁸Then the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking in the garden. It was the coolest time of the day. They hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

⁹But the Lord God called out to the man. “Where are you?” he asked.

¹⁰“I heard you in the garden,” the man answered. “I was afraid. I was naked, so I hid.”

¹¹The Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten the fruit of the tree I commanded you not to eat?”

¹²The man said, “It was the woman you put here with me. She gave me some fruit from the tree. And I ate it.”

¹³Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”

The woman said, “The serpent tricked me. That’s why I ate the fruit.”

¹⁴So the Lord God spoke to the serpent. He said, “Because you have done this,

“I am putting a curse on you.

You are cursed more than all of the livestock

and all of the wild animals.

You will crawl on the ground.

You will eat dust

all of the days of your life.

¹⁵I will put hatred

between you and the woman.

Your children and her children will be enemies.

Her son will crush your head.

And you will crush his heel.”

¹⁶The Lord God said to the woman,

“I will greatly increase your pain when you give birth.

You will be in pain when you have children.

You will long for your husband.

And he will rule over you.”

¹⁷The Lord God said to Adam, “You listened to your wife. You ate the fruit of the tree that I commanded you about. I said, ‘You must not eat its fruit.’

“So I am putting a curse on the ground because of what you did.

All the days of your life you will have to work hard

to get food from the ground.

¹⁸You will eat the plants of the field,

even though the ground produces thorns and thistles.

¹⁹You will have to work hard and sweat a lot

to produce the food you eat.

You were made out of the ground.

And you will return to it.

You are dust.

So you will return to it.”

²⁰Adam named his wife Eve. She would become the mother of every living person.

²¹The Lord God made clothes out of animal skins for Adam and his wife to wear. ²²The Lord God said, “The man has become like one of us. He can now tell the difference between good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and pick fruit from the tree of life and eat it. If he does, he will live forever.”

²³So the Lord God drove the man out of the Garden of Eden to work the ground he had been made out of. ²⁴The Lord God drove him out and then placed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden. He also placed a flaming sword there. It flashed back and forth. The cherubim and the sword guarded the way to the tree of life.

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