Genesis 1-8

Tree of Life Version

Parashat Bereshit

Creation in Six Days

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ^{[a] 2} Now the earth was chaos and waste, darkness was on the surface of the deep, and the Ruach Elohim was hovering upon the surface of the water.^[b]

³ Then God said, “Let there be light!” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good. So God distinguished the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” So there was evening and there was morning—one day.

⁶ Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water! Let it be for separating water from water.” ⁷ So God made the expanse and it separated the water that was below the expanse from the water that was over the expanse. And it happened so. ⁸ God called the expanse “sky.” So there was evening and there was morning—a second day. ⁹ Then God said, “Let the water below the sky be gathered to one place. Let the dry ground appear.” And it happened so. ¹⁰ God called the dry ground “land,” and the collection of the water He called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

¹¹ Then God said, “Let the land sprout grass, green plants yielding seed, fruit trees making fruit, each according to its species with seed in it, upon the land.” And it happened so. ¹² The land brought forth grass, green plants yielding seed, each according to its species, and trees making fruit with the seed in it, each according to its species. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ So there was evening and there was morning—a third day.

¹⁴ Then God said, “Let lights in the expanse of the sky be for separating the day from the night. They will be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. ¹⁵ They will be for lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the land.” And it happened so. ¹⁶ Then God made the two great lights—the greater light for dominion over the day, and the lesser light as well as the stars for dominion over the night. ¹⁷ God set them in the expanse of the sky to shine on the land ¹⁸ and to have dominion over the day and over the night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ So there was evening and there was morning—a fourth day.

²⁰ Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures! Let flying creatures fly above the land across the expanse of the sky.” ²¹ Then God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that crawls, with which the water swarms, according to their species, as well as every winged flying creature, according to their species. And God saw that it was good. ²² Then God blessed them by saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the seas. Let the flying creatures multiply on the land.” ²³ So there was evening and there was morning—a fifth day.

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the land bring forth living creatures according to their species—livestock, crawling creatures and wild animals, according to their species.” And it happened so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their species, the livestock according to their species, and everything that crawls on the ground, each according to its species. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness! Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the flying creatures of the sky, over the livestock, over the whole earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the land.” ²⁷ God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. ^{[c] 28} God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the land, and conquer it. Rule over the fish of the sea, the flying creatures of the sky, and over every animal that crawls on the land.”

²⁹ Then God said, “I have just given you every green plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the whole land, and every tree, which has the fruit of a tree yielding seed. They are to be food for you. ³⁰ Also for every wild animal, every flying creature of the sky and every creature that crawls on the land which has life, every green plant is to be food.” And it happened so. ³¹ So God saw everything that He made, and behold it was very good.

So there was evening and there was morning—the sixth day.

Shabbat For Rest

2 So the heavens and the earth were completed along with their entire array. ² God completed—on the seventh day—His work that He made, and He ceased—on the seventh day—from all His work that He made. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, for on it He ceased from all His work that God created for the purpose of preparing.

Humanity in Gan-Eden

⁴ These are the genealogical records of the heavens and the earth when they were created, at the time when Adonai Elohim made land and sky. ⁵ Now no shrub of the field was in the land yet, and no green plants of the field had sprouted yet. For Adonai Elohim had not caused it to rain upon the land, and there was no one to work the ground. ⁶ But a mist came up from the land and watered the whole surface of the ground.

⁷ Then Adonai Elohim formed the man out of the dust from the ground and He breathed into his nostrils a breath of life—so the man became a living being. ⁸ Then Adonai Elohim planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed. ⁹ Then Adonai Elohim caused to sprout from the ground every tree that was desirable to look at and good for food.

Now the Tree of Life was in the middle of the garden, and also the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. ¹⁰ A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became four riverheads. ¹¹ The name of the first is Pishon, the one that winds around the whole land of the Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² The gold of that land is good—bdellium and lapis lazuli stones are also there. ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon—it winds around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴ The name of the third river is Tigris—it runs east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

¹⁵ Then Adonai Elohim took the man and gave him rest in the Garden of Eden in order to cultivate and watch over it. ¹⁶ Then Adonai Elohim commanded the man saying, “From all the trees of the garden you are most welcome to eat. ¹⁷ But of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you must not eat. For when you eat from it, you most assuredly will die!

¹⁸ Then Adonai Elohim said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. Let Me make a well-matched helper for him.” ¹⁹ Adonai Elohim had formed from the ground every animal of the field and every flying creature of the sky, so He brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called them—each living creature—that was its name. ²⁰ So the man gave names to all of the livestock, and to the flying creatures of the sky, and to all the animals of the field; but for the man He did not find a well-matched helper for him. ²¹ Adonai Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall on the man and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. ²² Adonai Elohim built the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman. Then He brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said,

²⁴ This is why a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife; and they become one flesh.^[d]

From Innocence to Shame

²⁵ Now both of them were naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.

3 But the serpent was shrewder than any animal of the field that Adonai Elohim made. So it said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from all the trees of the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “Of the fruit of the trees, we may eat. ³ But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat of it and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ The serpent said to the woman, “You most assuredly won’t die! ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ Now the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a thing of lust for the eyes, and that the tree was desirable for imparting wisdom. So she took of its fruit and she ate. She also gave to her husband who was with her and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made for themselves loin-coverings. ⁸ And they heard the sound of Adonai Elohim going to and fro in the garden in the wind of the day. So the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Adonai Elohim in the midst of the Tree of the garden.

⁹ Then Adonai Elohim called to the man and He said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ Then he said, “Your sound—I heard it in the garden and I was afraid. Because I am naked, I hid myself.”

¹¹ Then He said, “Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the Tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”

¹² Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me—she gave me of the Tree, and I ate.”

¹³ Adonai Elohim said to the woman, “What did you do?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”

¹⁴ Adonai Elohim said to the serpent, “Because you did this,

¹⁷ Then to the man He said, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate of the tree which I commanded you, saying, ‘You must not eat of it’:

²⁰ Now Adam named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. ²¹ Adonai Elohim made Adam and his wife tunics of skin and He clothed them. ²² Then Adonai Elohim said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. So now, in case he stretches out his hand and takes also from the Tree of Life and eats and lives forever,” ²³ Adonai Elohim sent him away from the Garden of Eden, to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ And He expelled the man; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He had cheruvim dwell along, with the whirling sword of flame, to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

Cain and Abel’s Blood

4 Now the man had relations with Eve his wife and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I produced a man with Adonai.” ² Then she gave birth again, to his brother Abel. Abel became a shepherd of flocks while Cain became a worker of the ground. ³ So it happened after some time that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to Adonai, ⁴ while Abel—he also brought of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. Now Adonai looked favorably upon Abel and his offering, ⁵ but upon Cain and his offering He did not look favorably. Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.

⁶ Then Adonai said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? ⁷ If you do well, it will lift. But if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the doorway. Its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

⁸ Cain spoke to Abel his brother. While they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. ^{[f] 9} Then Adonai said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

¹⁰ Then He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground. ¹¹ So now, cursed are you from the ground which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² As often as you work the ground, it will not yield its crops to you again. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

¹³ Cain said to Adonai, “My iniquity^[g] is too great to bear! ¹⁴ Since You expelled me today from the face of the ground and I must be hidden from Your presence, then I will be a restless wanderer on the earth—anyone who finds me will kill me!”

¹⁵ But Adonai said to him, “In that case, anyone who kills Cain is to be avenged seven times over.”

So Adonai put a mark on Cain, so that anyone who found him would not strike him down. ¹⁶ Then Cain left Adonai’s presence and dwelled in the Land of Wandering, east of Eden.

¹⁷ Cain was intimate with his wife and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. And he was building a city, and he named the city after the name of his son, Enoch. ¹⁸ And to Enoch was born Irad. Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech.

¹⁹ Now Lamech took for himself two wives. The name of the first one was Adah, and the name of the second one was Zillah. ²⁰ Adah gave birth to Jabal—he was the pioneer of tent dwellers with livestock. ²¹ His brother’s name was Jubal—he was the pioneer of all who skillfully handle stringed instruments and wind instruments. ²² Now Zillah also gave birth to Tubal-Cain, the forger of every kind of bronze and iron tools; Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.

²⁵ Adam was intimate with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and she named him Seth, “For God has appointed me another seed in place of Abel—since Cain killed him.” ²⁶ To Seth, also was born a son. He named him Enosh. Then people began to call on Adonai’s Name.

Book of Genealogies

5 This is the Book of the Genealogies of Adam:

When God created Adam, in the likeness of God He made him. ² Male and female He created them, and He blessed them and called their name “Adam” when He created them. ³ Adam lived 130 years, then fathered a son in his likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. ⁴ Then the days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years, and He fathered other sons and daughters. ⁵ So all Adam’s days that he lived were 930 years, and then he died.

⁶ Seth lived 105 years, then fathered Enosh. ⁷ Seth lived 807 years after he fathered Enosh, and he fathered sons and daughters. ⁸ So all Seth’s days were 912 years, and then he died.

⁹ Enosh lived 90 years, then fathered Kenan. ¹⁰ Enosh lived 815 years after he fathered Kenan, and he fathered sons and daughters. ¹¹ So all of Enosh’s days were 905 years, and then he died.

¹² Kenan lived 70 years, then fathered Mahalalel. ¹³ Kenan lived 840 years after he fathered Mahalalel, he fathered sons and daughters. ¹⁴ So all of Kenan’s days were 910 years, and then he died.

¹⁵ Mahalalel lived 65 years, then fathered Jared. ¹⁶ Mahalalel lived 830 years after he fathered Jared, and he fathered sons and daughters. ¹⁷ So all of Mahalalel’s days were 895 years, and then he died.

¹⁸ Jared lived 162 years, then fathered Enoch. ¹⁹ Jared lived 800 years after he fathered Enoch, and he fathered sons and daughters. ²⁰ So all of Jared’s days were 962 years, and then he died.

²¹ Enoch lived 65 years, then fathered Methuselah.

²² Now Enoch walked with God continually for 300 years after he fathered Methuselah, and he fathered sons and daughters. ²³ So all of Enoch’s days were 365 years.

²⁴ And Enoch continually walked with God—then he was not there, because God took him.

²⁵ Methuselah lived 187 years and fathered Lamech. ²⁶ And Methuselah lived 782 years after he fathered Lamech, and he fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁷ So all of Methuselah’s days were 969 years, and then he died.

²⁸ Lamech lived 182 years and he fathered a son.

²⁹ And he named him Noah saying, “This one will comfort us from our work and from the pain of our hands because of the ground which Adonai cursed.”

³⁰ Lamech lived 595 years after he fathered Noah, and he fathered sons and daughters. ³¹ So all of Lamech’s days were 777 years, and then he died. ³² And Noah was 500 years old when he fathered Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Evil Inclination of All Humanity

6 Now when humankind began to multiply on the face of the ground and daughters were born to them, ² then the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were good and they took for themselves wives, any they chose. ³ Then Adonai said, “My Spirit will not remain with humankind forever, since they are flesh. So their days will be 120 years. ⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, whenever the sons of God came to the daughters of men, and gave birth to them. Those were the mighty men of old, men of renown.

⁵ Then Adonai saw that the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil all the time. ⁶ So Adonai regretted that He made humankind on the earth, and His heart was deeply pained. ⁷ So Adonai said, “I will wipe out humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the ground, from humankind to livestock, crawling things and the flying creatures of the sky, because I regret that I made them.”

⁸ But Noah found favor in Adonai’s eyes.

Parashat Noah

⁹ These are the genealogies of Noah. Noah was a righteous man. He was blameless among his generation. Noah continually walked with God. ¹⁰ Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. ¹¹ Now the earth was ruined before God, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹² God saw the earth, and behold it was ruined because all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.

Instructions for the Ark

¹³ Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh is coming before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Behold, I am about to bring ruin upon them along with the land. ¹⁴ Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood. You shall make the ark with compartments and smear pitch on it, both inside and out. ¹⁵ Now this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. ¹⁶ You shall make a roof for the ark, and you shall finish it to within a cubit from the top. You shall put the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third stories. ^{[h] 17} Now I am about to bring the flood—water upon the land—to destroy all flesh in which is the spirit of life from under the sky. Everything that is on the land will perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish My covenant with you. So you shall come into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ Also of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of everything—male and female—into the ark to keep alive with you. ²⁰ Of the flying creatures according to their kind, of the livestock according to their kind, of all the crawling creatures of the ground according to their kind—two of everything will come to you to keep them alive. ²¹ As for you: take for yourself every kind of edible food and gather it to yourself. It will be food for you and for them.”

²² So Noah did according to all that God commanded him; he did so exactly.

Deliverance Through the Flood

7 Then Adonai said to Noah, “Come—you and all your household—into the ark. For you only do I perceive as righteous before Me in this generation. ² Of every clean animal you shall take with you seven of each kind, male and female; and of the animals which themselves are not clean two, male and female; ³ also of the flying creatures of the sky seven of every kind, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of the whole land. ⁴ For in seven more days, I am going to make it rain upon the land forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe out all existence that I made from the face of the ground. ⁵ So Noah did all just as Adonai commanded him.

⁶ Now Noah was 600 years old when the flood came—water upon the land. ⁷ So Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, entered the ark because of the floodwaters. ⁸ Of the clean animals and unclean animals, the flying creatures and everything that crawls on the ground, ⁹ two by two they came to Noah, into the ark, male and female, just as God commanded Noah.

¹⁰ After the seven days, the floodwaters were upon the land. ¹¹ In the six-hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day, all the water sources of the great deep burst open, and the windows of the sky were opened. ¹² Then there was rain upon the land 40 days and 40 nights.

¹³ On that same day Noah, along with Noah’s sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s wife and the three wives of Noah’s sons with them, entered the ark, ¹⁴ they and every animal according to its kind, and all the livestock according to its kind, and every crawling creature that crawls on the land according to its kind, and every flying creature according to its kind, every bird, every winged creature. ¹⁵ So to Noah and into the ark they went by twos—all flesh in which was the spirit of life. ¹⁶ Those that came, male and female of all flesh, came just as God commanded him. Then Adonai shut him in.

¹⁷ The flood was forty days upon the land, and the waters increased and lifted the ark, so that it rose above the land. ¹⁸ The waters overpowered and became very mighty over the land, and the ark drifted on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ The waters completely overpowered the land so that all the high mountains beneath the entire sky were covered. ²⁰ The waters rose 15 cubits higher, as the mountains were covered. ²¹ All flesh perished—those that crawl on the land, the flying creatures, livestock, wild animals, all creatures that swarm upon the land, and all humankind. ²² Everything that had the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils—everything on dry land—died. ²³ So He wiped out all existence that was upon the surface of the ground, everything from people to livestock, to crawling creatures, and to flying creatures of the sky. They were wiped out off the land. Only Noah and those with him in the ark survived. ²⁴ The waters overpowered the land for 150 days.

8 Then God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. So God caused a wind to pass over the land and the water subsided. ² Also the sources of the deep and the windows of the skies were closed up, and the rain from the sky was held back. ³ The waters kept receding gradually from upon the land and the waters decreased by the end of 150 days. ⁴ The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The waters went on decreasing until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

⁶ It was at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made. ⁷ Then he sent out a raven and it kept going back and forth until the waters were drying up from the land. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see whether the waters had receded from the surface of the ground. ⁹ But the dove did not find a resting place for the sole of her foot. She returned to him in the ark because water covered the surface of the whole land. He stretched out his hand and he took her, and brought her to him into the ark. ¹⁰ So he waited yet another seven days and again he sent the dove out from the ark. ¹¹ The dove came to him at evening, and surprisingly—a freshly plucked olive leaf was in its mouth. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the land. ¹² After he waited seven more days, he sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again.

¹³ It was in his six-hundred-and first year—in the first month, on the first day of the month—that the waters had dried up from the land. Then Noah removed the cover of the ark and he looked, and behold, the surface of the ground had dried up. ¹⁴ By the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the land was dry.

Noah’s Soothing Sacrifice

¹⁵ Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶ “Come out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Every animal that is with you of all flesh, including the flying creatures, livestock and every crawling creature that crawls on the land, bring out with you, and let them swarm in the land and be fruitful and multiply upon the land.”

¹⁸ So Noah came out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ Every animal—every crawling creature, every flying creature, everything that crawls upon the land—came out from the ark in their families.

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to Adonai and he took of every clean domestic animal and of every clean flying creature and he offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ When Adonai smelled the soothing aroma, Adonai said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, even though the inclination of the heart of humankind is evil from youth. Nor will I ever again smite all living creatures, as I have done.