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1 Or a canopy; also verses 7, 8, 14, 15, 17, 20 2 Or Sky; also verses 9, 14, 15, 17, 20, 26, 28, 30; 2:1 3 Or Land; also verses 11, 12, 22, 24, 25, 26,28, 30; 2:1 4 Or small plants; also verses 12, 29 5 Or appointed times

The Beginning of Creation

1 In the beginning, God created the heav-ens and the earth. 2

fThe earth waswithout form and void, and darkness wasover the face of the deep. And the Spirit ofGod was hovering over the face of thewaters.The Six Days of Creation

3fAnd God said, “Let there be light,” and

there was light. 4fAnd God saw that thelight was good. And God separated the lightfrom the darkness. 5fGod called the lightDay, and the darkness he called Night. Andthere was evening and there was morning,the first day.

6fAnd God said, “Let there be an expansef

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in the midst of the waters, and let it separatethe waters from the waters.” 7fAnd Godmade the expanse and separated the watersthat were under the expanse from the watersthat were above the expanse. And it was so.8

fAnd God called the expanse Heaven.f2 And

there was evening and there was morning,the second day.

9fAnd God said, “Let the waters under

the heavens be gathered together into oneplace, and let the dry land appear.” And itwas so. 10fGod called the dry land Earth,f

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and the waters that were gathered togetherhe called Seas. And God saw that it wasgood.

11fAnd God said, “Let the earth sprout

vegetation, plantsf4 yielding seed, and fruit

trees bearing fruit in which is their seed,each according to its kind, on the earth.”And it was so. 12fThe earth brought forthvegetation, plants yielding seed accordingto their own kinds, and trees bearing fruitin which is their seed, each according to itskind. And God saw that it was good. 13fAndthere was evening and there was morning,the third day.

14fAnd God said, “Let there be lights in

the expanse of the heavens to separate theday from the night. And let them be forsigns and for seasons,f

5 and for days andyears, 15

fand let them be lights in theexpanse of the heavens to give light uponthe earth.” And it was so. 16fAnd God

Genesis

INTRODUCTIONGod is eternal—he has no beginning or end. Everything else had its beginning in God. The book of Genesis could be called the book of beginnings. It tells about the beginning of the world and everything in it, which God spoke into existence; the beginning of man, created in God’s image to have a special relationship with God; the beginning of sin and death because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience; the beginning of God’s judgment; and the beginning of God’s plan to save man. It is also the beginning of God choosing a people for himself through Abraham and the continuation of that plan through Abraham’s descendents—Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons. The book ends with the life of Joseph. Moses wrote Genesis, sometime between the thir-teenth and fi fteenth centuries B.C.

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madef1 the two great lights—the greater

light to rule the day and the lesser light torule the night—and the stars. 17fAnd Godset them in the expanse of the heavens togive light on the earth, 18fto rule over theday and over the night, and to separate thelight from the darkness. And God saw thatit was good. 19fAnd there was evening andthere was morning, the fourth day.

20fAnd God said, “Let the waters swarm

with swarms of living creatures, and letbirdsf

2 fly above the earth across theexpanse of the heavens.” 21fSo God createdthe great sea creatures and every living crea-ture that moves, with which the watersswarm, according to their kinds, and everywinged bird according to its kind. And Godsaw that it was good. 22fAnd God blessedthem, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply andfill the waters in the seas, and let birds mul-tiply on the earth.” 23

fAnd there wasevening and there was morning, the fifthday.

24fAnd God said, “Let the earth bring

forth living creatures according to theirkinds—livestock and creeping things andbeasts of the earth according to theirkinds.” And it was so. 25fAnd God madethe beasts of the earth according to theirkinds and the livestock according to theirkinds, and everything that creeps on theground according to its kind. And God sawthat it was good.

26fThen God said, “Let us make manf

3 inour image, after our likeness. And let themhave dominion over the fish of the sea andover the birds of the heavens and over thelivestock and over all the earth and overevery creeping thing that creeps on theearth.”27 So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;male and female he created them.

28fAnd God blessed them. And God said

to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fillthe earth and subdue it and have dominionover the fish of the sea and over the birds ofthe heavens and over every living thing thatmoves on the earth.” 29fAnd God said,“Behold, I have given you every plant yield-ing seed that is on the face of all the earth,and every tree with seed in its fruit. Youshall have them for food. 30fAnd to everybeast of the earth and to every bird of theheavens and to everything that creeps onthe earth, everything that has the breath oflife, I have given every green plant forfood.” And it was so. 31fAnd God saw every-thing that he had made, and behold, it wasvery good. And there was evening and therewas morning, the sixth day.The Seventh Day, God Rests

2 Thus the heavens and the earth werefinished, and all the host of them.

2fAnd on the seventh day God finished his

work that he had done, and he rested onthe seventh day from all his work that hehad done. 3fSo God blessed the seventh dayand made it holy, because on it God restedfrom all his work that he had done in cre-ation.The Creation of Man and Woman4 These are the generations

of the heavens and the earth whenthey were created,

in the day that the LORD God madethe earth and the heavens.

5fWhen no bush of the fieldf

4 was yet inthe landf

5 and no small plant of the fieldhad yet sprung up—for the LORD God hadnot caused it to rain on the land, and therewas no man to work the ground, 6fand amistf

6 was going up from the land and waswatering the whole face of the ground—7

fthen the LORD God formed the man ofdust from the ground and breathed into his

1 Or fashioned 2 Or ˜yin g things; see Leviticus 11:19-20 3 The Hebrew word for man (adam) is the generic term for mankind and becomesthe proper name Adam 4 Or open country 5 Or earth; also verse 6 6 Or spring

4 GENESIS 1:17

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