Genesis
The first stories in the Holy Bible
1
God made everything
1 First of all God made everything. He made the earth and the sky.+ 2 The ground was there but it was covered with deep water and it was really dark everywhere. But God's spirit was moving around over the water.
This is what happened on day 1
3 God said, “I want light”, and straight away light was shining everywhere.+ 4 God looked at the light, and he saw that it was good. Then God cut the light away from the dark. 5 He called the light, day time and he called the dark, night time.
Night time came, and that was the end of day one.
This is what happened on day 2
6-8 God said, “I want to cut all the water that I made into 2 parts, and I will put air in between them, and I will call the air, sky. One lot of water will be on top of the sky and the other lot of water will be under the sky.”
Night time came, and that was the end of day 2.
This is what happened on day 3
9 God said. “I want all the water under the sky to come together in one place, so that dry ground comes up.” And that is what happened. The water moved to one place, and dry ground came up. 10 God called the dry ground, land. And he called the water, sea. God looked at the land and the sea and he saw that they were good. 11 Then God said, “I want the ground to grow all kinds of plants. I want grass that has seeds, and I want all kinds of trees that grow fruit that have seeds in them. I will make every seed that falls into the ground grow up like the plant that it came from.” And that is the way God made it happen. 12 He made all the grass and the trees grow up from the ground. He made grass with seeds, and trees with fruit that have seeds in them. God looked at what he had made, and he saw that it was good. 13 Night time came, and that was the end of day 3.
This is what happened on day 4
14-16 God said, “I want 2 big lights up in the sky. I want one light for the day time and the other light for the night time. Those lights show people when it will be cold weather time and when it will be hot weather time every year. Yes, I will put those lights up in the sky to shine on the earth.”
So, God made 2 big lights. He made one big light and one small light. The big light is called the Sun, and it shines in the day time. The small light is called the Moon and it shines in the night time. God made all the stars too.
17 So God put all those lights up in the sky to shine down onto the earth. 18 One light shines in the day time and the other light shines at night time. Those lights show people when it is day time and when it is night time. God looked at all the lights and he saw that they were good. 19 Night time came, and that was the end of day 4.
This is what happened on day 5
20 Then God said, “I want the water to be full of fish and all sorts of animals that live in water. And I want birds to fly up in the sky too.” 21 So God made everything that lives and moves in the sea. He made the great big sea animals and all the little animals that live in the sea. And God made all the birds too. God looked at all the things he had made, and he saw that they were good.
22 God blessed them, and he did that by doing good things for them. God made them strong and he said, “I want all living things to have lots of young ones, so that the sea will be full of fish and other animals that live in water. And I want lots of birds too.” 23 Night time came, and that was the end of day 5.
This is what happened on day 6
24-25 Then God said, “I want the world to be full of different kinds of animals. I want wild animals and quiet animals. And I want different kinds of little animals that move around on the ground.” And that is what happened. God looked at all those animals, and he saw that they were good.
26 Then God said, “We are going to make people. They will be like us. They will be the boss over the fish and everything that lives in the sea. They will be the boss over all the birds that fly in the sky. They will be the boss over all the wild animals, and all the quiet animals. And they will be the boss over all the little animals that move around on the ground. Yes, people will be the boss over all of them.” 27 So God made people to be like himself. He made them man and woman.+
28 God blessed them, and he did that by doing good things for them. God made them strong and he said to them, “I want you to have lots of children so that they go everywhere all over the world, and they will be the boss over everything. They will be the boss over all the country, the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that move on the ground.”
29 Then God said to the man and the woman, “Look, I made lots of different kinds of things for you to eat. I made grasses that have seeds in them, and I made trees that have fruit. You can eat the seeds from those grasses and you can eat food from the bushes and the trees. 30 And I made green plants for all the animals to eat.”
31 God looked at all the things he made, and he saw that they were really good.
Night time came. That was the end of day 6.
+ 1:1 Psalms 89:11 + 1:3 2 Corinthians 4:6 + 1:27 Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6; Genesis 5:1-2; 9:7