'Beginning' in the Bible

In the beginning God (Elohim) created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth.

The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar [in Babylonia].

And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one [unified] people, and they all have the same language. This is only the beginning of what they will do [in rebellion against Me], and now no evil thing they imagine they can do will be impossible for them.

He journeyed on from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,

Yet when they had devoured them, it could not be detected that they had eaten them, because they were still as thin and emaciated as before. Then I awoke [but again I fell asleep and dreamed].

The steward searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

“Reuben, you are my firstborn;My might, the beginning of my strength and vigor,Preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power [that should have been your birthright].

“This month shall be the beginning of months to you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.

‘Then at the beginning of [each of] your months you shall present a burnt offering to the Lord: two bulls, one ram, seven male lambs one year old without blemish;

a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when the guards had just been changed, and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.

So Naomi returned from the country of Moab, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

On that day I will carry out against Eli everything that I have spoken concerning his house (family), from beginning to end.

Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest [in the spring] until [the autumn] rain fell on them; and she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on their bodies by day, nor the beasts of the field [to feed on them] by night.

Now when they began to live there, they did not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them.

In the third month [at the end of wheat harvest] they began to make the heaps, and they finished them in the seventh month.

In the second year of their coming to God’s house at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak began [the work], with the rest of their brothers—the priests and Levites and all who came to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to oversee the work of the house of the Lord.

Now in the reign of Ahasuerus (Xerxes), in the beginning of his reign, the Samaritans wrote [to him] an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem [who had returned from exile].

“Though your beginning was insignificant,Yet your end will greatly increase.

And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

Let God arise, and His enemies be scattered;Let those who hate Him flee before Him.

“At the beginning You founded the earth;The heavens are the work of Your hands.

He also struck down all the firstborn in their land,The first fruits and chief substance of all their strength.

The [reverent] fear of the Lord is the beginning (the prerequisite, the absolute essential, the alphabet) of wisdom;A good understanding and a teachable heart are possessed by all those who do the will of the Lord;His praise endures forever.

The [reverent] fear of the Lord [that is, worshiping Him and regarding Him as truly awesome] is the beginning and the preeminent part of knowledge [its starting point and its essence];But arrogant fools despise [skillful and godly] wisdom and instruction and self-discipline.

“The beginning of wisdom is: Get [skillful and godly] wisdom [it is preeminent]!And with all your acquiring, get understanding [actively seek spiritual discernment, mature comprehension, and logical interpretation].

“The Lord created and possessed me at the beginning of His way,Before His works of old [were accomplished].

“From everlasting I was established and ordained,From the beginning, before the earth existed, [I, godly wisdom, existed].

The [reverent] fear of the Lord [that is, worshiping Him and regarding Him as truly awesome] is the beginning and the preeminent part of wisdom [its starting point and its essence],And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding and spiritual insight.

The beginning of strife is like letting out water [as from a small break in a dam; first it trickles and then it gushes];Therefore abandon the quarrel before it breaks out and tempers explode.

An inheritance hastily gained [by greedy, unjust means] at the beginningWill not be blessed in the end.

He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.

The end of a matter is better than its beginning;Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit (pride).

the beginning of his talking is foolishness and the end of his talk is wicked madness.

“Then I will restore your judges as at the first,And your counselors as at the beginning;Afterward you will be called the city of righteousness,The faithful city.”

Which sends ambassadors by the sea,Even in vessels of papyrus on the surface of the waters.Go, swift messengers, to a nation [of people] tall and smooth (clean shaven),To a people feared far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nationWhose land the rivers divide.

At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the Lord of hostsFrom a people tall and smooth (clean shaven),From a people feared far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nation,Whose land the rivers divide—To the place [of worship] of the name of the Lord of hosts, to Mount Zion [in Jerusalem].

Do you [who worship idols] not know? Have you not heard?Has it not been told to you from the beginning?Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth [the omnipotence of God and the stupidity of bowing to idols]?

“Who has performed and done this,Calling forth [and guiding the destinies of] the generations [of the nations] from the beginning?‘I, the Lord—the first, and with the last [existing before history began, the ever-present, unchanging God]—I am He.’”

Who [among the idols] has declared this from the beginning, so that we could know?Or from earlier times, so that we could say, “He is [unquestionably] right!”?In fact, there was no one who declared it,Indeed, there was no one who proclaimed it;There was no one at all who heard you speak [for you pagan gods are speechless].

Declaring the end and the result from the beginning,And from ancient times the things which have not [yet] been done,Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,And I will do all that pleases Me and fulfills My purpose,’

“I have declared the former things [which happened to Israel] in times past;They went forth from My mouth and I proclaimed them;Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.

“Come near to Me, listen to this:From the beginning I have not spoken in secret,From the time that it happened, I was there.And now the Lord God has sent Me, and His [Holy] Spirit.”

A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning,Is the place of our sanctuary (the temple).

For behold, I am beginning to work disaster in the city which is called by My Name, and shall you go unpunished? You will not be exempt from punishment, for I am calling for a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth,” says the Lord of hosts.’

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the Lord, saying,

In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:

In the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year and the fifth month, the [false] prophet Hananiah the son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon [one of the priests’ cities], spoke [without godly authority] to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying:

The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying:

“Arise, cry aloud in the night,At the beginning of the night watches;Pour out your heart like waterBefore the presence of the Lord;Lift up your hands to HimFor the life of your little onesWho are faint from hungerAt the head of every street.”

In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month [after the beginning of the exile in Babylon], certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord and sat down before me.

In the twenty-fifth year of our exile [in Babylon], in the beginning of the year, on the tenth [day] of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city [of Jerusalem] was taken, on that [very] same day the hand of the Lord was upon me and He brought me there.

At the beginning of your supplications, the command [to give you an answer] was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly regarded and greatly beloved. Therefore consider the message and begin to understand the [meaning of the] vision.

Thus the Lord God showed me [a vision], and behold, He was forming a swarm of locusts when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing.

Harness the chariot to the team of horses [to escape the invasion],O inhabitant of Lachish—She was the beginning of sinTo the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem)—Because in you were foundThe rebellious acts of Israel.