In the beginning the earth has no shape, and darkness lies over the deep. God speaks, and there is light. Day after day, one thing after another appears: the sky, the dry land and the seas, the green plants, the sun and the moon, and the creatures that swim and fly.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The earth had no shape yet, and it was empty. Darkness lay over the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters.
God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light.
God looked at the light. And God saw that it was good. He separated the light from the darkness. He called the light Day, and he called the darkness Night.
Evening came, and morning came: the first day.
Then God said, “Let there be a great dome in the middle of the waters, to divide the waters from the waters.” So God made the dome, and it held the waters below apart from the waters above. And it was so. God called the dome Sky.
Evening came, and morning came: the second day.
God said, “Let the waters under the sky gather together in one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. He called the dry land Earth, and he called the gathered waters Seas. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let the earth grow green things: grass, plants that make seeds, and trees that bear fruit with their seeds inside, each of its own kind.” And it was so. The earth grew grass and every kind of seed-bearing plant, and every kind of tree with seeds in its fruit. And God saw that it was good.
Evening came, and morning came: the third day.
God said, “Let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs, let them mark the seasons, the days, and the years, and let them shine down on the earth.” And it was so.
God made two great lights: the greater light, the sun, to rule the day, and the lesser light, the moon, to rule the night. He made the stars, too. He set the sun, the moon, and the stars in the sky to give light to the earth, to rule over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
Evening came, and morning came: the fourth day.
Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth, across the open sky.” So God created the great whales and every living thing that swims and swarms in the waters, each of its own kind, and every bird with wings, each of its own kind. And God saw that it was good.
He blessed them and said, “Have many young and grow in number. Fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
Evening came, and morning came: the fifth day.
God said, “Let the earth bring out living creatures of every kind: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals.” And it was so. He made the wild animals of every kind, the cattle of every kind, and every creature that creeps along the ground. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make people in our image, to be like us. Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over the cattle and all the earth, and over every creature that creeps along the ground.”
So God created human beings in his own image. He made them like himself, a man and a woman, male and female together.
He blessed them and said to them, “Have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and take charge of it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
And God said, “Look, I give you every plant that bears seeds, all over the earth, and every tree whose fruit has seeds in it. They will be your food. And to every wild animal, every bird of the sky, and every creature that creeps on the ground, to everything that lives, I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
God looked at everything he had made. And God saw that it was very good.
Evening came, and morning came: the sixth day.
So the heavens and the earth were finished, with everything in them.
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing, and on the seventh day he rested from all his work.
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested from all the work he had done in creating the world.
Retold by Talerie from King James Version (opens in a new window) Public domain Copy this text, adapt it, use it however you like. A link back to Talerie is appreciated but never required. CC0 1.0 (opens in a new window)