Then God said, "Let the water beneath the sky come together into one area, and let dry ground appear!" And that is what happened:

God called the dry ground "land," and he called the water that had come together "oceans." And God saw how good it was.

no shrubs had yet grown in the meadows of the earth and no vegetation had sprouted, because the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there were no human beings to work the ground.

Instead, an underground stream would arise out of the earth and water the surface of the ground.

So the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground, breathed life into his lungs, and the man became a living being.

The LORD God caused every tree that is both beautiful and suitable for food to spring up out of the ground. The tree of life was also in the middle of the garden, along with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

After the LORD God formed from the ground every wild animal and every bird that flies, he brought each of them to the man to see what he would call it. Whatever the man called each living creature became its name.

He told the man, "Because you have listened to what your wife said, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, "You must not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you. You'll eat from it through pain-filled labor for the rest of your life.

You will eat food by the sweat of your brow until you're buried in the ground, because you were taken from it. You're made from dust and you'll return to dust."

therefore the LORD God expelled the man from the garden of Eden so he would work the ground from which he had been taken.

"What did you do?" God asked. "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.

Now you're more cursed than the ground, which has opened to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

Whenever you work the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you, and you'll wander throughout the earth as a fugitive."

whom he named Noah, because he said, "May this one comfort us from our work, from pain that is caused by our manual labor, and from the ground that the LORD has cursed."

From birds according to their species, from domestic animals according to their species, and from everything that crawls on the ground according to their species two of everything will come to you so they may remain alive.

From both clean and unclean animals, from birds, and from everything that crawls on the ground,

All existing creatures that had lived on the surface of the ground were annihilated, from humans to livestock, from crawling creatures to birds of the sky. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah remained, along with those who were with him in the ark.

By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the ground was dry.

Bring out with you every living creature including the flying creatures, animals, and everything that crawls on the ground so they may disperse throughout the land, be fruitful, and multiply throughout the earth."

All the living creatures of the earth will be filled with fear and terror of you from now on, including all the creatures that fly in the sky, everything that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the ocean. They've been assigned to live under your dominion.

Then Abram fell to the ground as God continued speaking to him.

Abraham fell to the ground, laughed, and told himself, "Can a child be born to a 100-year-old man? Can a 90-year-old Sarah give birth?"

he glanced up and saw three men standing there, not far from him. As soon as he noticed them, Abraham ran from the tent entrance to greet them and bowed low to the ground.

The two angels entered Sodom at sunset while Lot was sitting in the gate area of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up, greeted them, bowed low with his face to the ground,

overthrowing those cities, all of the plain, and everyone who lived in the cities. He also destroyed the plants that grew out of the ground.

Abraham agreed with Ephron, so he weighed out to Ephron the money to which he had agreed publicly while the Hittites were listening: 400 shekels of silver at the current merchant rate.

When Abraham's servant heard what they had said, he bowed down to the ground before the LORD.

May the LORD grant you dew from the skies, and from the fertile land; may he grant you abundant grain and fresh wine.

And there was the LORD, standing above it and telling Jacob, "I am the LORD God of your grandfather Abraham. I'm Isaac's God, too. I'm giving you and your descendants the ground on which you're sleeping.

Then he went out to meet Esau, passing in front of all of them, and bowed low to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.

When Joseph told his father about this, his father rebuked him and asked him, "What kind of dream is that? Will I, your mother, and your brothers really come to you and bow down to the ground in front of you?"

But Onan knew that the offspring wouldn't be his own heir, so whenever he had sexual relations with his brother's wife, he would spill his semen on the ground to avoid fathering offspring for his brother.

When Joseph arrived at his palace, his brothers brought to him their gifts that they had carried with them and bowed to the ground in front of him.

So they quickly dismounted, unloaded their sacks onto the ground, and each one of them opened his own sack.

Joseph was waiting for them back at his palace when his brothers returned. They fell to the ground in front of him,

Joseph took them off his knees and then bowed low with his face to the ground.