God called the light "day" and the darkness "night." There was evening, and there was morning, marking the first day.

God called the expanse "sky." There was evening, and there was morning, a second day.

God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear." It was so.

God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds." It was so.

The land produced vegetation -- plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.

There was evening, and there was morning, a third day.

God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs to indicate seasons and days and years,

and let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." It was so.

God made two great lights -- the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also.

God placed the lights in the expanse of the sky to shine on the earth,

to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.

There was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.

God created the great sea creatures and every living and moving thing with which the water swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. God saw that it was good.

There was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day.

God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals, each according to its kind." It was so.

God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the cattle according to their kinds, and all the creatures that creep along the ground according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground."

And to all the animals of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to all the creatures that move on the ground -- everything that has the breath of life in it -- I give every green plant for food." It was so.

God saw all that he had made -- and it was very good! There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

By the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, and he ceased on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing.

God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation.

Now no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, every tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food. (Now the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were in the middle of the orchard.)

Now a river flows from Eden to water the orchard, and from there it divides into four headstreams.

The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it.

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die."

The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion for him who corresponds to him."

The Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

So the man named all the animals, the birds of the air, and the living creatures of the field, but for Adam no companion who corresponded to him was found.

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was asleep, he took part of the man's side and closed up the place with flesh.

Then the Lord God made a woman from the part he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

Now the serpent was more shrewd than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Is it really true that God said, 'You must not eat from any tree of the orchard'?"

The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard;

but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, 'You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.'"

The serpent said to the woman, "Surely you will not die,

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

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard.

But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"

And the Lord God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

So the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" And the woman replied, "The serpent tricked me, and I ate."

The Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the wild beasts and all the living creatures of the field! On your belly you will crawl and dust you will eat all the days of your life.

To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you."

But to Adam he said, "Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return."

And the Lord God said, "Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."

So the Lord God expelled him from the orchard in Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken.

When he drove the man out, he placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life.

Now the man had marital relations with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. Then she said, "I have created a man just as the Lord did!"

Then she gave birth to his brother Abel. Abel took care of the flocks, while Cain cultivated the ground.

At the designated time Cain brought some of the fruit of the ground for an offering to the Lord.

Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why is your expression downcast?

Is it not true that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it."

Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" And he replied, "I don't know! Am I my brother's guardian?"

But the Lord said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground!

So now, you are banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

When you try to cultivate the ground it will no longer yield its best for you. You will be a homeless wanderer on the earth."

Then Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is too great to endure!

But the Lord said to him, "All right then, if anyone kills Cain, Cain will be avenged seven times as much." Then the Lord put a special mark on Cain so that no one who found him would strike him down.

Cain had marital relations with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was building a city, and he named the city after his son Enoch.

To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael. Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.

Lamech took two wives for himself; the name of the first was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah.

Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the first of those who live in tents and keep livestock.

Now Zillah also gave birth to Tubal-Cain, who heated metal and shaped all kinds of tools made of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.

Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah! Listen to me! You wives of Lamech, hear my words! I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for hurting me.

If Cain is to be avenged seven times as much, then Lamech seventy-seven times!"

And Adam had marital relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son. She named him Seth, saying, "God has given me another child in place of Abel because Cain killed him."

And a son was also born to Seth, whom he named Enosh. At that time people began to worship the Lord.

When Adam had lived 130 years he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and he named him Seth.

When humankind began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days (and also after this) when the sons of God were having sexual relations with the daughters of humankind, who gave birth to their children. They were the mighty heroes of old, the famous men.

So the Lord said, "I will wipe humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth -- everything from humankind to animals, including creatures that move on the ground and birds of the air, for I regret that I have made them."

So God said to Noah, "I have decided that all living creatures must die, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am about to destroy them and the earth.

This is how you should make it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

I am about to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy from under the sky all the living creatures that have the breath of life in them. Everything that is on the earth will die,

You must bring into the ark two of every kind of living creature from all flesh, male and female, to keep them alive with you.

Of the birds after their kinds, and of the cattle after their kinds, and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you so you can keep them alive.

The Lord said to Noah, "Come into the ark, you and all your household, for I consider you godly among this generation.

You must take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, the male and its mate, two of every kind of unclean animal, the male and its mate,

and also seven of every kind of bird in the sky, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of the earth.

For in seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the ground every living thing that I have made."

male and female, came into the ark to Noah, just as God had commanded him.

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month -- on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

On that very day Noah entered the ark, accompanied by his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, along with his wife and his sons' three wives.

Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life came into the ark to Noah.

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to blow over the earth and the waters receded.

On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on one of the mountains of Ararat.

The waters kept on receding until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground.

The dove could not find a resting place for its feet because water still covered the surface of the entire earth, and so it returned to Noah in the ark. He stretched out his hand, took the dove, and brought it back into the ark.

When the dove returned to him in the evening, there was a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak! Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

He waited another seven days and sent the dove out again, but it did not return to him this time.

In Noah's six hundred and first year, in the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.

And by the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was dry.

Then God spoke to Noah and said,

Noah built an altar to the Lord. He then took some of every kind of clean animal and clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma and said to himself, "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, even though the inclination of their minds is evil from childhood on. I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.

"While the earth continues to exist, planting time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease."

Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

God said to Noah and his sons,