2:2 On the seventh day God rested.

2:3 God blessed the seventh day as His own special day. Why? Because he had completed His work creating the heavens and the earth and on this day He rested.

2:4 So that is it.

The heavens and the earth were created by Yahweh a very long time ago. This story is about what happened afterwards.

2:5 The earth had not yet grown green grass or trees. Why? Because Yahweh had not yet made it rain on the earth. There was also no one to sow the land and take care of the plants.

2:6 From deep within the earth, water sprang up and spread over the ground [mud]. This was used to create human.

2:7 Yahweh took this mud from the ground and formed a human. And Yahweh breathed life into the human and he inhaled and became living.

2:8 In the east, Yahweh planted a garden, He named this garden Eden. Then Yahweh took the human he created and placed him in the garden.

2:9 In the garden there were beautiful trees of every different kind that all produced fruits that were good to eat. Among all these trees stood one tree in the middle of the garden that was the tree of life. Next to it was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If someone eats from the tree of life, they will live forever. If they eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they will come to know good and evil.

2:10 A river flowed out of the garden of Eden that nourished the trees. It parted and became four rivers.

2:11 The first river was called Pishon which flowed out into the land called Havilah. Havilah had these three things: a lot of gold,

2:12 Bdellium [gum from a tree that is used to make fragrance] and onyx [a shiny black stone].

2:13 The second river Gihon, which flowed out into the land called Cush.

2:14 The third river called Tigris, flowed out into the land called Assyria in the east. And the fourth river was called Euphrates

2:15 Yahweh placed the human in the garden of Eden to work and take care of it.

2:16 Yahweh commanded the human, “You may eat from any tree in this garden.

2:17 But the tree in the middle- the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you must not eat from this tree. If you disobey me and eat from this tree your life will be ruined and you will die.”

2:18 Yahweh looked at the human and said, “He is lonely, this is not good. I will create another person to help him.”

2:19 Yahweh had already created all the animals. He called all the animals to the man, all the four-legged beasts, the crawling creatures and winged animals, He called them to the man.

2:20 And the man gave names to all the animals. The man gave names to all the animals, to the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the forest, he named them all. The man saw that there were many, many animals but none was human like him.

2:21 So Yahweh caused the man to fall into a very deep sleep. As he slept, Yahweh took one of his ribs from his body and then healed his skin.

2:22 Then Yahweh used the man’s rib to create a woman. He sent her to the man. The man awoke and saw the woman.

2:23 He said, “Finally! A person like me. We are both bone and flesh. We are the same. She was created from my rib. She is ‘woman,’ my companion.”

2:24 This is why a man leaves his mother, his father and family to find a woman who will become his wife and they two will become one.

1:1 A very, very long time ago, God created the heavens and the earth.

1:2 The earth was not yet formed and contained nothing, it was completely void. Water flowed endlessly and the entire earth was completely dark. God looked over all this. The Spirit of God, [like a bird], hovered over the water.

1:3 God spoke, saying, “Let there be light.” And the darkness became light.

1:4 God looked at the darkness and the light and saw that it was good.

1:5 God called the light ‘Day’ and the darkness ‘Night.’ Evening passed and morning came and that was day one.

1:6 Then God said, “Let there be a great dome to separate the waters above from the waters below.”

1:7 So God made a great dome to keep the waters above separate from the waters below.

1:8 God called the dome above ‘Heaven.’ Evening passed and morning came and that was day two.

1:9 God said, “Let there be dry land.” And the water gathered and dry land appeared.

1:10 God called the dry land ‘earth’ and the waters He called ‘seas.’ God looked at the earth and seas and saw that it was good.

1:11 God said “Let the earth produce plants of every kind. Let the earth grow grass, plants that make grain, and fruit trees. The fruit trees will make fruit with seeds in it. Let these plants grow on the earth.”

1:12 And it happened; the earth produced plants of all different kinds. Grass sprang up abundantly across the land, stalks with grains of all types [corn, rice, wheat, oat], trees of all varieties sprang up yielding fruits of all different kinds [orange, mango, banana, plums, guavas, guinep] everywhere [tomatoes, pineapple, strawberries, watermelon] [of all different sizes and shapes]. These plants sprang over all across the land, reproducing themselves through seeds. God looked over this and saw that it was good.

1:13 Evening passed and morning came and that was day three.

1:14 God spoke to the heavens, “Let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night. These lights will indicate the seasons, days and years.

1:15 The lights from heaven will give light to the earth.”

1:16 God made two great lights: the greater [brighter] light to rule the day, and the lesser [dimmed] light to rule the night, along with the stars.

1:17 God placed these lights in the sky to give light to the earth.

1:18 The greater [brighter] light ruled over the day and the lesser [dimmed] light ruled over the night and separated light and darkness. God looked at this and saw that it was good.

1:19 Evening passed and morning came and that was day four.

1:20 God spoke to the waters below and the heavens above, “Let the seas be filled with living creatures and let birds fly above in the heavens.”

1:21 God created huge sea creatures and many different animals swarmed the waters [shrimp, lobster, octopus, turtles, crocodile, whales] the sky was filled with different winged animals of its own kind [great and small- dove, crow, eagle, parrot, hummingbird]. God looked at this and saw that it was good.

1:22 God looked at the heavens and the earth and blessed them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the seas, let the birds multiply across the earth.”

1:23 Evening passed and morning came and that was day five.

1:24 God spoke to the earth “Let there be living creatures of different kinds: farm animals [cows, sheep, goat], crawling insects [bugs, worms, snakes], and wild animals of different kind [lion, leopard, elephant, ostrich, kangaroo, alligator]

1:25 So God created all these different types of animals. God looked at this and saw that it was good.

1:26 Then God thought of creating man [human]. Why? To be stewards [responsible] for the earth. To take care of birds in the sky, the animals in the sea and the creatures all over the earth.

1:27 God created man and woman in His own image and likeness.

1:28 God blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. Let man and woman rule over the earth, over the fishes in the sea and the birds in the sky, and the animals on the land. Be stewards of the earth.”

1:29 God said to the man and the woman, “Look at all the plants and trees, I give you all the plants that bear fruits and grains to eat freely.

1:30 All green grass, grains and fruit trees I give to all the animals, every bird and crawling insect, to eat from freely. Every plant is theirs because they have the breath of life which I have given them.” And they all went ahead and ate freely.