# A Translation of the Bible/Genesis

Genesis

### Chapter 1

1 In the beginning of God's creation of the heavens and the earth, 2 when the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and a mighty wind blew over the face of the waters, 3 then God said: 'Let there be light.' And there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
6 And God said: 'Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it split up the waters.' 7 And God made the expanse, and split the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
9 And God said: 'Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.' And it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and He called the gathering together of the waters seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 And God said: 'Let the Earth sprout grass, plants yielding seeds, and fruit-trees bearing fruit after their kinds, in which is their seeds, upon the Earth.' And it was so. 12 And the earth sprouted grass, plants yielding seeds after their kinds, and trees bearing fruit, in which is their seeds, after their kinds; and God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
14 And God said: 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heaven to distinguish the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for festivals, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heaven to give light upon the earth.' And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and He made the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to distinguish the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
20 And God said: 'Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of heaven.' 21 And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that creeps, with which the waters swarmed, after its kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.' 23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
24 And God said: 'Let the Earth bring forth living creatures after their kinds, cattle, and creeping thing, and beasts of the earth after their kinds.' And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth after their kinds, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 26 And God said: 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the Earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' 27 And God created man in His own image - in the image of God He created him; he created them, male and female. 28 And God blessed them; and God said to them: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that creeps on the earth.' 29 And God said: 'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed, which is on the face of all the Earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is a living soul, every green plant shall be for food.' And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

### Chapter 2

1 And the Heaven and the Earth were finished, and all that they contained. 2 And on the seventh day God had finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because on it He rested from all His work which God in creating had made.
4 This is the story of the Heaven and of the Earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made Earth and Heaven. 5 No shrub of the field was yet on the Earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprung up; for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the Earth, and there was no man to till the ground. 6 But a mist went up from the Earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7Then the LORD God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils; and man became a living soul. 8 And the LORD God planted a garden in the East, in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And the LORD God made every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, grow out of the ground; the tree of life also in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was split, and became four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; that is the one which encircles the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12 and the gold of that land is good; there is aromatic gum and the onyx stone. 13 And the name of the second river is Gihon; that is the one which encircles the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is Tigris; that is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden to tend it and to keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying: 'You may freely eat of every tree in the garden; 17 but you shall not eat any of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for on the day that you eat any of it you shall surely die.
18 And the LORD God said: 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper suitable for him.' 19 And the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air out of the ground, and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them; and whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was to be its name. 20 And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the place with flesh instead. 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from the man, He made into a woman, and brought her to the man. 23 And the man said: 'This is at last bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.' 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cling to his wife, and they shall be like one person. 25 And they were both nude, the man and his wife, and were not embarrassed.

### Chapter 3

1 And the serpent was cunning, more than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman: "But has God said: You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?" 2 And the woman said to the serpent: "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said: You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, in case you die." 4 And the serpent said to the woman: "No, you shall not die; 5 for God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight for the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate it; and she also gave it to her husband with her, and he ate it. 7 And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden toward the evening; and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 And the LORD God called to the man, and said to him: "Where are you?" 10And he said: "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." 11 And He said: "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" 12 And the man said: "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate it." 13 And the LORD God said to the woman: "What is this that you have done?" And the woman said: "The serpent tricked me, and I ate." 14 And the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, you are cursed from among all cattle, and from among all beasts of the field; you shall go on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put hatred between you and the woman, and between your descendants and her descendants; they will bruise your head, and you shall bruise their heel." 16 He said to the woman: 'I will greatly increase you pain and your labour; you will give birth to children in pain; and your desire shall be towards your husband, and he shall rule over you." 17 And He said to Adam: "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying: You shall not eat of it, the ground is cursed for your sake; you shall eat of it in toil all the days of your life. 18 It will bring forth thorns and thistles for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 You shall eat bread with the sweat of your face, until you return to the ground; for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and you will return to dust." 20 And the man gave his wife the name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.
22 And the LORD God said: "Behold, the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil; and now, in case he reaches out his hand, and takes also from the tree of life, and eats, and lives for ever." 23 Therefore the LORD God expelled him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed the cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and the flaming sword which turned every way, to defend the way to the tree of life.

## Footnotes

* ↑ The punctuation of the first three verses follows Rashi and many other Jewish commentators
* ↑ Lit. a wind of God; compare the English "an almighty wind"
* ↑ It is ambiguous whether the Hebrew means that the moon should rule the stars or that God made the stars; the translation here follows the implication of the traditional tune for chanting aloud
* ↑ Pluperfect, following many jewish commentators
* ↑ Ishah can mean both "woman" and "from a man"
* ↑ lit. cool of the day