Genesis 1:26-2:15

Common English Bible

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.”

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and master it. Take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, and everything crawling on the ground.” ²⁹ Then God said, “I now give to you all the plants on the earth that yield seeds and all the trees whose fruit produces its seeds within it. These will be your food. ³⁰ To all wildlife, to all the birds in the sky, and to everything crawling on the ground—to everything that breathes—I give all the green grasses for food.” And that’s what happened. ³¹ God saw everything he had made: it was supremely good.

There was evening and there was morning: the sixth day.

2 The heavens and the earth and all who live in them were completed. ² On the sixth ^[b] day God completed all the work that he had done, and on the seventh day God rested from all the work that he had done. ³ God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all the work of creation.^{[c] 4} This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

World’s creation in the garden

On the day the Lord God made earth and sky— ⁵ before any wild plants appeared on the earth, and before any field crops grew, because the Lord God hadn’t yet sent rain on the earth and there was still no human being^[d] to farm the fertile land, ⁶ though a stream rose from the earth and watered all of the fertile land— ⁷ the Lord God formed the human^[e] from the topsoil of the fertile land^[f] and blew life’s breath into his nostrils. The human came to life. ⁸ The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and put there the human he had formed. ⁹ In the fertile land, the Lord God grew every beautiful tree with edible fruit, and also he grew the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁰ A river flows from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides into four headwaters. ¹¹ The name of the first river is the Pishon. It flows around the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² That land’s gold is pure, and the land also has sweet-smelling resins and gemstones. ^{[g] 13} The name of the second river is the Gihon. It flows around the entire land of Cush. ¹⁴ The name of the third river is the Tigris, flowing east of Assyria; and the name of the fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ The Lord God took the human and settled him in the garden of Eden to farm it and to take care of it.