Genesis 1-8

Common English Bible

World’s creation in seven days

1 When God began to create^[a] the heavens and the earth— ²the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters— ³God said, “Let there be light.” And so light appeared. ⁴God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God named the light Day and the darkness Night.

There was evening and there was morning: the first day.

⁶God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters to separate the waters from each other.” ⁷God made the dome and separated the waters under the dome from the waters above the dome. And it happened in that way. ⁸God named the dome Sky.

There was evening and there was morning: the second day.

⁹God said, “Let the waters under the sky come together into one place so that the dry land can appear.” And that’s what happened. ¹⁰God named the dry land Earth, and he named the gathered waters Seas. God saw how good it was. ¹¹God said, “Let the earth grow plant life: plants yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind throughout the earth.” And that’s what happened. ¹²The earth produced plant life: plants yielding seeds, each according to its kind, and trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was.

¹³There was evening and there was morning: the third day.

¹⁴God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will mark events, sacred seasons, days, and years. ¹⁵They will be lights in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth.” And that’s what happened. ¹⁶God made the stars and two great lights: the larger light to rule over the day and the smaller light to rule over the night. ¹⁷God put them in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth, ¹⁸to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw how good it was.

¹⁹There was evening and there was morning: the fourth day.

²⁰God said, “Let the waters swarm with living things, and let birds fly above the earth up in the dome of the sky.” ²¹God created the great sea animals and all the tiny living things that swarm in the waters, each according to its kind, and all the winged birds, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was. ²²Then God blessed them: “Be fertile and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”

²³There was evening and there was morning: the fifth day.

²⁴God said, “Let the earth produce every kind of living thing: livestock, crawling things, and wildlife.” And that’s what happened. ²⁵God made every kind of wildlife, every kind of livestock, and every kind of creature that crawls on the ground. God saw how good it was. ²⁶Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.”

²⁷God created humanity in God’s own image,
in the divine image God created them,^[b]
male and female God created them.

²⁸God blessed them and said to them, “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and master it. Take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, and everything crawling on the ground.” ²⁹Then God said, “I now give to you all the plants on the earth that yield seeds and all the trees whose fruit produces its seeds within it. These will be your food. ³⁰To all wildlife, to all the birds in the sky, and to everything crawling on the ground—to everything that breathes—I give all the green grasses for food.” And that’s what happened. ³¹God saw everything he had made: it was supremely good.

There was evening and there was morning: the sixth day.

2 The heavens and the earth and all who live in them were completed. ²On the sixth ^[c] day God completed all the work that he had done, and on the seventh day God rested from all the work that he had done. ³God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all the work of creation.^[d] ⁴This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

World’s creation in the garden

On the day the Lord God made earth and sky— ⁵before any wild plants appeared on the earth, and before any field crops grew, because the Lord God hadn’t yet sent rain on the earth and there was still no human being^[e] to farm the fertile land, ⁶though a stream rose from the earth and watered all of the fertile land— ⁷the Lord God formed the human^[f] from the topsoil of the fertile land^[g] and blew life’s breath into his nostrils. The human came to life. ⁸The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and put there the human he had formed. ⁹In the fertile land, the Lord God grew every beautiful tree with edible fruit, and also he grew the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁰A river flows from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides into four headwaters. ¹¹The name of the first river is the Pishon. It flows around the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. ¹²That land’s gold is pure, and the land also has sweet-smelling resins and gemstones. ^[h] ¹³The name of the second river is the Gihon. It flows around the entire land of Cush. ¹⁴The name of the third river is the Tigris, flowing east of Assyria; and the name of the fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵The Lord God took the human and settled him in the garden of Eden to farm it and to take care of it. ¹⁶The Lord God commanded the human, “Eat your fill from all of the garden’s trees; ¹⁷but don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because on the day you eat from it, you will die!” ¹⁸Then the Lord God said, “It’s not good that the human is alone. I will make him a helper that is perfect for him.” ¹⁹So the Lord God formed from the fertile land all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky and brought them to the human to see what he would name them. The human gave each living being its name. ²⁰The human named all the livestock, all the birds in the sky, and all the wild animals. But a helper perfect for him was nowhere to be found.

²¹So the Lord God put the human into a deep and heavy sleep, and took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh over it. ²²With the rib taken from the human, the Lord God fashioned a woman and brought her to the human being. ²³The human^[i] said,

“This one finally is bone from my bones
and flesh from my flesh.
She will be called a woman^[j]
because from a man^[k] she was taken.”

²⁴This is the reason that a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife, and they become one flesh. ²⁵The two of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they weren’t embarrassed.

Knowledge, not eternal life

3 The snake was the most intelligent^[l] of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say that you shouldn’t eat from any tree in the garden?”

²The woman said to the snake, “We may eat the fruit of the garden’s trees ³but not the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘Don’t eat from it, and don’t touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴The snake said to the woman, “You won’t die! ⁵God knows that on the day you eat from it, you will see clearly and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶The woman saw that the tree was beautiful with delicious food and that the tree would provide wisdom, so she took some of its fruit and ate it, and also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷Then they both saw clearly and knew that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made garments for themselves.

⁸During that day’s cool evening breeze, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden; and the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God in the middle of the garden’s trees. ⁹The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰The man^[m] replied, “I heard your sound in the garden; I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

¹¹He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree, which I commanded you not to eat?”

¹²The man said, “The woman you gave me, she gave me some fruit^[n] from the tree, and I ate.”

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

And the woman said, “The snake tricked me, and I ate.”

¹⁴The Lord God said to the snake,

“Because you did this,
    you are the one cursed
        out of all the farm animals,
        out of all the wild animals.
    On your belly you will crawl,
        and dust you will eat
        every day of your life.

¹⁵I will put contempt

    between you and the woman,
    between your offspring and hers.
They will strike your head,
        but you will strike at their heels.”

¹⁶To the woman he said,

“I will make your pregnancy very painful;
in pain you will bear children.
You will desire your husband,
but he will rule over you.”

¹⁷To the man he said, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and you ate from the tree that I commanded, ‘Don’t eat from it,’

cursed is the fertile land because of you;
        in pain you will eat from it
        every day of your life.
¹⁸Weeds and thistles will grow for you,
        even as you eat the field’s plants;
¹⁹    by the sweat of your face you will eat bread—
        until you return to the fertile land,
            since from it you were taken;
            you are soil,
                to the soil you will return.”

²⁰The man named his wife Eve^[o] because she is the mother of everyone who lives. ²¹The Lord God made the man and his wife leather clothes and dressed them. ²²The Lord God said, “The human being^[p] has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” Now, so he doesn’t stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever, ²³the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to farm the fertile land from which he was taken. ²⁴He drove out the human. To the east of the garden of Eden, he stationed winged creatures wielding flaming swords to guard the way to the tree of life.

Cain and Abel

4 The man Adam knew his wife Eve intimately. She became pregnant and gave birth to Cain, and said, “I have given life to^[q] a man with the Lord’s help.” ²She gave birth a second time to Cain’s brother Abel. Abel cared for the flocks, and Cain farmed the fertile land.

³Some time later, Cain presented an offering to the Lord from the land’s crops ⁴while Abel presented his flock’s oldest offspring with their fat. The Lord looked favorably on Abel and his sacrifice ⁵but didn’t look favorably on Cain and his sacrifice. Cain became very angry and looked resentful. ⁶The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why do you look so resentful? ⁷If you do the right thing, won’t you be accepted? But if you don’t do the right thing, sin will be waiting at the door ready to strike! It will entice you, but you must rule over it.”

⁸Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”^[r] When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

⁹The Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

Cain said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s guardian?”

¹⁰The Lord said, “What did you do? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. ¹¹You are now cursed from the ground that opened its mouth to take your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹²When you farm the fertile land, it will no longer grow anything for you, and you will become a roving nomad on the earth.”

¹³Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. ¹⁴Now that you’ve driven me away from the fertile land and I am hidden from your presence, I’m about to become a roving nomad on the earth, and anyone who finds me will kill me.”

¹⁵The Lord said to him, “It won’t happen;^[s] anyone who kills Cain will be paid back seven times.” The Lord put a sign on Cain so that no one who found him would assault him. ¹⁶Cain left the Lord’s presence, and he settled down in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Cain’s descendants

¹⁷Cain knew his wife intimately. She became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain built a city and named the city after his son Enoch.

¹⁸Irad was born to Enoch. Irad fathered Mehujael, Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. ¹⁹Lamech took two wives, the first named Adah and the second Zillah. ²⁰Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the ancestor of those who live in tents and own livestock. ²¹His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the ancestor of those who play stringed and wind instruments. ²²Zillah also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the ancestor of^[t] blacksmiths and all artisans of bronze and iron. Tubal-cain’s sister was Naamah.

²³Lamech said to his wives,

“Adah and Zillah, listen to my voice;
        wives of Lamech, pay attention to my words:
I killed a man for wounding me,
        a boy for striking me;
²⁴    so Cain will be paid back seven times
        and Lamech seventy-seven times.”

²⁵Adam knew his wife intimately again, and she gave birth to a son. She named him Seth^[u] “because God has given me another child in place of Abel, whom Cain killed.” ²⁶Seth also fathered a son and named him Enosh. At that time, people began to worship in the Lord’s name.

Adam’s descendants

5 This is the record of Adam’s descendants. On the day God created humanity, he made them to resemble God ²and created them male and female. He blessed them and called them humanity^[v] on the day they were created. ³When Adam was 130 years old, he became the father of a son in his image, resembling him, and named him Seth. ⁴After Seth’s birth, Adam lived 800 years; he had other sons and daughters. ⁵In all, Adam lived 930 years, and he died.

⁶When Seth was 105 years old, he became the father of Enosh. ⁷After the birth of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years; and he had other sons and daughters. ⁸In all, Seth lived 912 years, and he died.

⁹When Enosh was 90 years old, he became the father of Kenan. ¹⁰After Kenan’s birth, Enosh lived 815 years; and he had other sons and daughters. ¹¹In all, Enosh lived 905 years, and he died.

¹²When Kenan was 70 years old, he became the father of Mahalalel. ¹³After the birth of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years; and he had other sons and daughters. ¹⁴In all, Kenan lived 910 years, and he died.

¹⁵When Mahalalel was 65 years old, he became the father of Jared. ¹⁶After Jared’s birth, Mahalalel lived 830 years; and he had other sons and daughters. ¹⁷In all, Mahalalel lived 895 years, and he died.

¹⁸When Jared was 162 years old, he became the father of Enoch. ¹⁹After Enoch’s birth, Jared lived 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. ²⁰In all, Jared lived 962 years, and he died.

²¹When Enoch was 65 years old, he became the father of Methuselah. ²²Enoch walked with God. After Methuselah’s birth, Enoch lived 300 years; and he had other sons and daughters. ²³In all, Enoch lived 365 years. ²⁴Enoch walked with God and disappeared because God took him.

²⁵When Methuselah was 187 years old, he became the father of Lamech. ²⁶After Lamech’s birth, Methuselah lived 782 years; and he had other sons and daughters. ²⁷In all, Methuselah lived 969 years, and he died.

²⁸When Lamech was 182 years old, he became the father of a son ²⁹and named him Noah, saying, “This one will give us relief^[w] from our hard work, from the pain in our hands, because of the fertile land that the Lord cursed.” ³⁰After Noah’s birth, Lamech lived 595 years; and he had other sons and daughters. ³¹In all, Lamech lived 777 years, and he died.

³²When Noah was 500 years old, Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Ancient heroes

6 When the number of people started to increase throughout the fertile land, daughters were born to them. ²The divine beings saw how beautiful these human women were, so they married the ones they chose. ³The Lord said, “My breath^[x] will not remain in humans forever, because they are flesh. They will live one hundred twenty years.” ⁴In those days, giants^[y] lived on the earth and also afterward, when divine beings and human daughters had sexual relations and gave birth to children. These were the ancient heroes, famous men.

Great flood

⁵The Lord saw that humanity had become thoroughly evil on the earth and that every idea their minds thought up was always completely evil. ⁶The Lord regretted making human beings on the earth, and he was heartbroken. ⁷So the Lord said, “I will wipe off of the land the human race that I’ve created: from human beings to livestock to the crawling things to the birds in the skies, because I regret I ever made them.” ⁸But as for Noah, the Lord approved of him.

⁹These are Noah’s descendants. In his generation, Noah was a moral and exemplary man; he^[z] walked with God. ¹⁰Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ¹¹In God’s sight, the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. ¹²God saw that the earth was corrupt, because all creatures behaved corruptly on the earth.

¹³God said to Noah, “The end has come for all creatures, since they have filled the earth with violence. I am now about to destroy them along with the earth, ¹⁴so make a wooden ark.^[aa] Make the ark with nesting places and cover it inside and out with tar. ¹⁵This is how you should make it: four hundred fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. ¹⁶Make a roof^[ab] for the ark and complete it one foot from the top.^[ac] Put a door in its side. In the hold below, make the second and third decks.

¹⁷“I am now bringing the floodwaters over the earth to destroy everything under the sky that breathes. Everything on earth is about to take its last breath. ¹⁸But I will set up my covenant with you. You will go into the ark together with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives. ¹⁹From all living things—from all creatures—you are to bring a pair, male and female, into the ark with you to keep them alive. ²⁰From each kind of bird, from each kind of livestock, and from each kind of everything that crawls on the ground—a pair from each will go in with you to stay alive. ²¹Take some from every kind of food and stow it as food for you and for the animals.”

²²Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him.

7 The Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark with your whole household, because among this generation I’ve seen that you are a moral man. ²From every clean animal, take seven pairs, a male and his mate; and from every unclean animal, take one pair, a male and his mate; ³and from the birds in the sky as well, take seven pairs, male and female, so that their offspring will survive throughout the earth. ⁴In seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will wipe off from the fertile land every living thing that I have made.”

⁵Noah did everything the Lord commanded him.

⁶Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters arrived on earth. ⁷Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark to escape the floodwaters. ⁸From the clean and unclean animals, from the birds and everything crawling on the ground, ⁹two of each, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, just as God commanded Noah. ¹⁰After seven days, the floodwaters arrived on the earth. ¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day—on that day all the springs of the deep sea erupted, and the windows in the skies opened. ¹²It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights. ¹³That same day Noah, with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and his sons’ three wives, went into the ark. ¹⁴They and every kind of animal—every kind of livestock, every kind that crawls on the ground, every kind of bird^[ad]— ¹⁵they came to Noah and entered the ark, two of every creature that breathes. ¹⁶Male and female of every creature went in, just as God had commanded him. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.^[ae]

¹⁷The flood remained on the earth for forty days. The waters rose, lifted the ark, and it rode high above the earth. ¹⁸The waters rose and spread out over the earth. The ark floated on the surface of the waters. ¹⁹The waters rose even higher over the earth; they covered all of the highest mountains under the sky. ²⁰The waters rose twenty-three feet high, covering the mountains. ²¹Every creature took its last breath: the things crawling on the ground, birds, livestock, wild animals, everything swarming on the ground, and every human being. ²²Everything on dry land with life’s breath in its nostrils died. ²³God wiped away every living thing that was on the fertile land—from human beings to livestock to crawling things to birds in the sky. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ark were left. ²⁴The waters rose over the earth for one hundred fifty days.

8 God remembered Noah, all those alive, and all the animals with him in the ark. God sent a wind over the earth so that the waters receded. ²The springs of the deep sea and the skies^[af] closed up. The skies held back the rain. ³The waters receded gradually from the earth. After one hundred fifty days, the waters decreased; ⁴and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day, the ark came to rest on the Ararat mountains. ⁵The waters decreased gradually until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the mountain peaks appeared.

⁶After forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made. ⁷He sent out a raven, and it flew back and forth until the waters over the entire earth had dried up. ⁸Then he sent out a dove to see if the waters on all of the fertile land had subsided, ⁹but the dove found no place to set its foot. It returned to him in the ark since waters still covered the entire earth. Noah stretched out his hand, took it, and brought it back into the ark. ¹⁰He waited seven more days and sent the dove out from the ark again. ¹¹The dove came back to him in the evening, grasping a torn olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the waters were subsiding from the earth. ¹²He waited seven more days and sent out the dove, but it didn’t come back to him again. ¹³In Noah’s six hundred first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters dried up from the earth. Noah removed the ark’s hatch and saw that the surface of the fertile land had dried up. ¹⁴In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day, the earth was dry.

¹⁵God spoke to Noah, ¹⁶“Go out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷Bring out with you all the animals of every kind—birds, livestock, everything crawling on the ground—so that they may populate the earth, be fertile, and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸So Noah went out of the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹All the animals, all the livestock,^[ag] all the birds, and everything crawling on the ground, came out of the ark by their families.

God’s promise for the earth

²⁰Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of the clean large animals and some of the clean birds, and placed entirely burned offerings on the altar. ²¹The Lord smelled the pleasing scent, and the Lord thought to himself, I will not curse the fertile land anymore because of human beings since the ideas of the human mind are evil from their youth. I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done.

²²As long as the earth exists,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and hot,
summer and autumn,
day and night
will not cease.