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.