In the beginning, God created the universe.

When the earth was as yet unformed and desolate, with the surface of the ocean depths shrouded in darkness, and while the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters,

calling the light "day," and the darkness "night." The twilight and the dawn were day one.

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

Then God said, "Let vegetation sprout all over the earth, including seed-bearing plants and fruit trees, each kind containing its own seed!" And that is what happened:

Vegetation sprouted all over the earth, including seed-bearing plants and fruit trees, each kind containing its own seed. And God saw that it was good.

to serve as lights in the sky, and to shine on the earth!" And that is what happened:

God placed them in space to shine on the earth,

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, to be like us. Let them be masters over the fish in the ocean, the birds that fly, the livestock, everything that crawls on the earth, and over the earth itself!"

So God created mankind in his own image; in his own image God created them; he created them male and female.

God blessed the humans by saying to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it! Be masters over the fish in the ocean, the birds that fly, and every living thing that crawls on the earth!"

I have given all green plants as food for every wild animal of the earth, every bird that flies, and to every living thing that crawls on the earth." And that is what happened.

By the seventh day God had completed the work he had been doing, so on the seventh day he stopped working on everything that he had done.

Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God stopped working on everything that he had been creating.

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.

The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, toward the east, where he placed the man whom he had formed.

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.

The name of the first one is Pishon it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

The LORD God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden in order to have him work it and guard it.

Later, the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make the woman to be an authority corresponding to him."

When the man was asleep, he removed one of the man's ribs and closed up the flesh where it had been. Then the LORD God formed the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.

So the man exclaimed, "At last! This is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. This one will be called "Woman,' because she was taken from Man."

(Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and they will become one flesh.)

Now the Shining One was more clever than any animal of the field that the LORD God had made. He asked the woman, "Did God actually say, "You are not to eat from any tree of the garden'?"

"We may eat from the trees of the garden," the woman answered the Shining One,

"but as for the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God has said, "You are not to eat from it, nor are you to touch it, or you will die.'"

"You certainly will not die!" the Shining One told the woman.

"Even God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you'll become like God, knowing good and evil."

When the woman saw that the tree produced good food, was attractive in appearance, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. Then she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate some, too.

Whenthey heard the voice of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden during the breeze of the day, the man and his wife concealed themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

"I heard your voice in the garden," the man answered, "and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid from you."

Then the LORD God asked the woman, "What did you do?" "The Shining One misled me," the woman answered, "so I ate."

The LORD God told the Shining One, "Because you have done this, you are more cursed than all the livestock, and more than all the earth's animals, You'll crawl on your belly and eat dust as long as you live.

"I'll place hostility between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He'll strike you on the head, and you'll strike him on the heel."

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."

Later, the LORD God said, "Look! The man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, so he won't reach out, also take from the tree of life, eat, and then live forever "

Later, after a while, Cain brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit that he had harvested,

When Cain became very upset and depressed, the LORD asked Cain, "Why are you so upset? Why are you depressed?

If you do what is appropriate, you'll be accepted, won't you? But if you don't do what is appropriate, sin is crouching near your doorway, turning toward you. Now as for you, will you take dominion over it?"

Instead, Cain told his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the wilderness." When they were outside in the fields, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

"You're driving me from the soil today. I'll be hidden from you, and I'll wander throughout the earth as a fugitive. In the future, whoever finds me will kill me."

The LORD told him, "This won't happen, because whoever kills you will suffer seven times the vengeance." Then the LORD placed a sign on Cain so that no one finding him would kill him.

After this, Cain left the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Later, Lamech married two wives. One was named Adah and the other was named Zillah.

Adah gave birth to Jabal, who became the ancestor of those who live in tents and herd livestock.

Later on, after Adam had sexual relations with his wife, she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, because "God granted me another offspring to replace Abel, since Cain murdered him."

This is the historical record of Adam's generations. When God created mankind, he made them in his own likeness.

Creating them male and female, he blessed them and called them humans when he created them.

After Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son just like him, that is, according to his own likeness, and named him Seth.

When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh.

When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan.

When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel.

When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared.

When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch.

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.

When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech.

When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son,

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."

So the LORD said, "My Spirit won't remain with human beings forever, because they're truly mortal. Their lifespan will be 120 years."

The Nephilim were on the earth at that time (and also immediately afterward), when those divine beings were having sexual relations with those human women, who gave birth to children for them. These children became the heroes and legendary figures of ancient times.

The LORD saw that human evil was growing more and more throughout the earth, with every inclination of people's thoughts becoming only evil on a continuous basis.

Then the LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and he was deeply grieved about that.

By this time, the earth had become ruined in God's opinion and filled with violence.

So God announced to Noah, "I've decided to destroy every living thing on earth, because it has become filled with violence due to them. Look! I'm about to annihilate them, along with the earth.

So make yourself an ark out of cedar, constructing compartments in it, and cover it inside and out with tar.

Make a roof for the ark, and finish the walls to within one cubit from the top. Place the entrance in the side of the ark, and build a lower, a middle, and an upper deck.

"For my part, I'm about to flood the earth with water and destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die.

However, I will establish my own covenant with you, and you are to enter the ark you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives.

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.

Then the LORD told Noah, "Come you and all your household into the ark, because I've seen that you alone are righteous in this generation.

along with seven pairs of the flying birds, male and female, in order to keep their offspring alive on the surface of all the earth.

Seven days from now I'll send rain on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights, and I'll destroy every living creature that I've made."

Noah was 600 years old when water began to flood the earth.

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

On the seventeenth day of the second month, when Noah was 600 years old, all the springs of the great deep burst open, the floodgates of the heavens were opened,

On that very day, Noah entered the ark with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah's wife, his sons' three wives with them,

The flood waters continued to surge, increasing throughout the earth, while the ark floated on the surface of the flood water.

Every living thing on earth died flying creatures, livestock, wildlife, all creatures that swarm over the earth, and all human beings.

Everything that breathed and everything that had lived on dry land died.

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.

God kept Noah in mind, along with all the wildlife and livestock that were with him in the ark. God's Spirit moved throughout the earth, causing the flood waters to subside.

The ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month.

The flood water continued to recede until the tenth month, when, on the first of that month, the tops of the mountains could be seen.

but the dove could not yet find a place to rest, so it returned to Noah on the ark, since water still covered the land. Noah reached out his hand and took the dove back into the ark with him.

The dove returned to him in the evening, but in its beak there was an olive leaf that it had plucked! So Noah knew that the flood waters had decreased on the land.

In the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, during the first month, the flood water began to evaporate from the land. Noah then removed the ark's cover and saw that the surface of the land was drying.

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."

Every animal, every crawling thing, every flying creature, and everything that moves on the earth emerged from the ark by groups.

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings on it from every clean animal and every clean bird.

When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, he told himself, "I will never again curse the land because of human beings even though human inclinations remain evil from youth nor will I destroy every living being ever again, as I've done.

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.

However, you are not to eat meat with its life that is, its blood in it!

Also, I will certainly demand an accounting regarding bloodshed, from every animal and from every human being. I'll demand an accounting from every human being for the life of another human being.

"Whoever sheds human blood, by a human his own blood is to be shed; because God made human beings in his own image.

I've set my rainbow in the sky to symbolize the covenant between me and the earth.

Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow becomes visible in the clouds,

When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will observe it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living beings on the earth."

God also told Noah, "This is the symbol of the covenant that I've established between me and everything that lives on the earth."

He drank some of the wine, got drunk, and lay down naked right in the middle of his tent.