The Beginning of the World

1 In the beginning God created the sky and the earth. ² The earth was empty and had no form. Darkness covered the ocean, and God’s Spirit was moving over the water.

³ Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, so he divided the light from the darkness. ⁵ God named the light “day” and the darkness “night.” Evening passed, and morning came. This was the first day.

⁶ Then God said, “Let there be something to divide the water in two.” ⁷ So God made the air and placed some of the water above the air and some below it. ⁸ God named the air “sky.” Evening passed, and morning came. This was the second day.

⁹ Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered together so the dry land will appear.” And it happened. ¹⁰ God named the dry land “earth” and the water that was gathered together “seas.” God saw that this was good.

¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth produce plants—some to make grain for seeds and others to make fruits with seeds in them. Every seed will produce more of its own kind of plant.” And it happened. ¹² The earth produced plants with grain for seeds and trees that made fruits with seeds in them. Each seed grew its own kind of plant. God saw that all this was good. ¹³ Evening passed, and morning came. This was the third day.

¹⁴ Then God said, “Let there be lights in the sky to separate day from night. These lights will be used for signs, seasons, days, and years. ¹⁵ They will be in the sky to give light to the earth.” And it happened.

¹⁶ So God made the two large lights. He made the brighter light to rule the day and made the smaller light to rule the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God put all these in the sky to shine on the earth, ¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that all these things were good. ¹⁹ Evening passed, and morning came. This was the fourth day.

²⁰ Then God said, “Let the water be filled with living things, and let birds fly in the air above the earth.”

²¹ So God created the large sea animals and every living thing that moves in the sea. The sea is filled with these living things, with each one producing more of its own kind. He also made every bird that flies, and each bird produced more of its own kind. God saw that this was good. ²² God blessed them and said, “Have many young ones so that you may grow in number. Fill the water of the seas, and let the birds grow in number on the earth.” ²³ Evening passed, and morning came. This was the fifth day.

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth be filled with animals, each producing more of its own kind. Let there be tame animals and small crawling animals and wild animals, and let each produce more of its kind.” And it happened.

²⁵ So God made the wild animals, the tame animals, and all the small crawling animals to produce more of their own kind. God saw that this was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image and likeness. And let them rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the tame animals, over all the earth, and over all the small crawling animals on the earth.”

²⁷ So God created human beings in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female. ²⁸ God blessed them and said, “Have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

²⁹ God said, “Look, I have given you all the plants that have grain for seeds and all the trees whose fruits have seeds in them. They will be food for you. ³⁰ I have given all the green plants as food for every wild animal, every bird of the air, and every small crawling animal.” And it happened. ³¹ God looked at everything he had made, and it was very good. Evening passed, and morning came. This was the sixth day.

The Seventh Day—Rest

2 So the sky, the earth, and all that filled them were finished. ² By the seventh day God finished the work he had been doing, so he rested from all his work. ³ God blessed the seventh day and made it a holy day, because on that day he rested from all the work he had done in creating the world.

The First People

⁴ This is the story of the creation of the sky and the earth. When the Lord God first made the earth and the sky, ⁵ there were still no plants on the earth. Nothing was growing in the fields because the Lord God had not yet made it rain on the land. And there was no person to care for the ground, ⁶ but a mist would rise up from the earth and water all the ground.

⁷ Then the Lord God took dust from the ground and formed a man from it. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nose, and the man became a living person. ⁸ Then the Lord God planted a garden in the east, in a place called Eden, and put the man he had formed into it. ⁹ The Lord God caused every beautiful tree and every tree that was good for food to grow out of the ground. In the middle of the garden, God put the tree that gives life and also the tree that gives the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁰ A river flowed through Eden and watered the garden. From there the river branched out to become four rivers. ¹¹ The first river, named Pishon, flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² The gold of that land is excellent. Bdellium and onyx^[a] are also found there. ¹³ The second river, named Gihon, flows around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴ The third river, named Tigris, flows out of Assyria toward the east. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ The Lord God put the man in the garden of Eden to care for it and work it. ¹⁶ The Lord God commanded him, “You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden, ¹⁷ but you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil. If you ever eat fruit from that tree, you will die!”

The First Woman

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

¹⁹ From the ground God formed every wild animal and every bird in the sky, and he brought them to the man so the man could name them. Whatever the man called each living thing, that became its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all the tame animals, to the birds in the sky, and to all the wild animals. But Adam^[b] did not find a helper that was right for him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused the man to sleep very deeply, and while he was asleep, God removed one of the man’s ribs. Then God closed up the man’s skin at the place where he took the rib. ²² The Lord God used the rib from the man to make a woman, and then he brought the woman to the man.

²³ And the man said,

²⁴ So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one body.

²⁵ The man and his wife were naked, but they were not ashamed.