1 In the beginning, when God created the universe,
2 the earth was formless and desolate. The raging
ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the Spirit
of God was moving over the water.
3 Then God
commanded, "Let there be light"- and light appeared. 4
God was pleased with what He saw. Then he separated the light from
the darkness,
5 and He named the light "Day" and the
darkness "Night." Evening passed and morning came - that was the
first day.
6 Then God commanded, "Let there be a dome to
divide the water and to keep it in two separate places"- and it was done.
7 So God made a dome, and it separated the water under it from the
water above it. 8 He named the dome "Sky."
Evening passed and morning came - that was the second day.
9
Then God commanded, "Let the water below the sky come together in one place,
so that the land will appear" - and it was done. 10
He named the land "Earth." and the water which had come together
he named "Sea." And God was pleased with what he saw.
11
Then he commanded , "Let earth produce all kinds of plants, those that
bear grain and those that bear fruit: - and it was done. 12
So the earth produced all kinds of plants, and God was pleased with what
he saw.
13 Evening passed and morning came -
that was the third day. 14 Then God commanded,
"Let lights appear in the sky to separate day from night and to show the
time when days, years, and religious festivals begin;
15
they will shine in the sky to give light to the earth" - and it was done.
16 So God made the two larger lights, the sun to rule
over the day and the moon to rule over the night; he also made the stars.
17 He placed the lights in the sky to shine on the
earth, 18 to rule over the day and the night, and
to separate light from darkness. And God was pleased with what he
saw.
19 Evening passed and morning came - that
was the fourth day.
20 Then God commanded, "Let the water be filled
with many kinds of living beings, and let the air be filled with birds."
21 So God created the great sea monsters, all kinds
of creatures that live in the water, and all kinds of birds. And
God was pleased with what he saw. 22 He blessed
them all and told the creatures that live in the water to reproduce and
to fill the sea, and he told the birds to increase in number.
23
Evening passed and morning came - that was the fifth day.
24 Then God commanded, "Let the earth produce
all kinds of animal life; domestic and wild, large and small" - and it
was done.
25 So God made them all, and he was
pleased with what he saw.
26 Then God said, "And now we will make human
beings., and they will be like us and resemble us, They will have power
over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and
small."
27 So God created human beings, making them to
be like himself. He created them male and female, 28
blessed them, and said, "Have many children, so that your descendants will
live all over the earth and bring it under their control. I am putting
you in charge of the fish, the birds, and all the wild animals.
29 I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for
you to eat, 30 but for all the wild animals and for
all the birds I have provided grass and leafy plants for food" - and it
was done.
31 God looked at everything he had made, and he
was very pleased. Evening passed and morning came - that was the
sixth day.
Genesis 2
1 And so the whole universe was completed.
2 By the seventh day God finished what he had been doing and stopped
working.
3 He blessed the seventh day and set
it apart as a special day, because by that day he had completed his creation
and stopped working. 4 And that is how the universe
was created.
7 Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground and formed a man out of it; he breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live.
21 Then the Lord God made the man fall into a deep
sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took out one of the man's ribs and
closed up the flesh. 22 He formed a woman out
of the rib and brought her to him.
From the Good News Bible
Nelson
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Last updated 3/04/02