NIV Our Family Story Bible | Page 3

GENESIS
The Beginning
1
In the be­gin­ning God cre­at­ed the heav­ens and the e
­ arth. 2 Now the
earth was form­less and emp­ty, dark­ness was over the sur­face of the
deep, and the Spir­it of God was hov­er­ing over the wa­ters.
3 And God said, “Let t ­ here be l ­ ight,” and t ­ here was l ­ ight. 4 God saw that the
light was good, and he sep­a­rat­ed the l ­ ight from the dark­ness. 5 God
called the l ­ ight “day,” and the dark­ness he c ­ alled “night.” And t ­ here was
eve­ning, and ­there was morn­ing  — ​the ­first day.
6 And God said, “Let ­there be a ­vault be­tween the wa­ters to sep­a­rate wa­ter
from wa­ter.” 7 So God made the ­vault and sep­a r ­ at­ed the wa­ter un­der
the ­vault from the wa­ter ­above it. And it was so. 8  God ­called the ­vault
“sky.” And t ­ here was eve­ning, and t ­ here was morn­ing — ​the sec­ond
day.
9 And God said, “Let the wa­ter un­der the sky be gath­ered to one ­place, and
let dry ­ground ap­pear.” And it was so. 10 God ­called the dry ­ground “land,”
and the gath­ered wa­ters he ­called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the land pro­duce veg­e­ta­tion: seed-bear­ing
plants and t ­ rees on the land that bear f ­ ruit with seed in it, ac­cord­ing
to ­their var­i­ous ­kinds.” And it was so. 12  The land pro­duced veg­e­ta­tion:
plants bear­ing seed ac­cord­ing to t ­ heir ­kinds and ­trees bear­ing ­fruit with
seed in it ac­cord­ing to t ­ heir ­kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And
there was eve­ning, and ­there was morn­ing  — ​the ­third day.
14 And God said, “Let t ­ here be l ­ ights in the ­vault of the sky to sep­a­rate the day
from the ­night, and let them s ­ erve as ­signs to mark ­sacred times, and
days and ­years, 15 and let them be l ­ ights in the ­vault of the sky to give
light on the ­earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two ­great ­lights — ​the
great­er ­light to gov­ern the day and the less­er ­light to gov­ern the ­night.
He also made the s ­ tars. 17 God set them in the ­vault of the sky to give
light on the ­earth, 18 to gov­ern the day and the ­night, and to sep­a­rate
light from dark­ness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And t ­ here was eve­
ning, and ­there was morn­ing — ​the ­fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the wa­ter teem with liv­ing crea­tures, and let b
­ irds fly
above the e
­ arth a
­ cross the ­vault of the sky.” 21 So God cre­at­ed the g
­ reat
crea­tures of the sea and ev­ery liv­ing ­thing with ­which the wa­ter ­teems
and that moves about in it, ac­cord­ing to ­their ­kinds, and ev­ery ­winged
bird ac­cord­ing to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22  God ­blessed
them and said, “Be fruit­ful and in­crease in num­ber and fill the wa­ter in
the seas, and let the ­birds in­crease on the ­earth.” 23 And ­there was eve­
ning, and ­there was morn­ing — ​the ­fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land pro­duce liv­ing crea­tures ac­cord­ing to t ­ heir
kinds: the live­stock, the crea­tures that move a
­ long the ­ground, and the
wild an­i­mals, each ac­cord­ing to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the
wild an­i­mals ac­cord­ing to ­their ­kinds, the live­stock ac­cord­ing to ­their
kinds, and all the crea­tures that move ­along the ­ground ac­cord­ing to
their ­kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man­kind in our im­age, in our like­ness,
so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the ­birds in the sky,
over the live­stock and all the wild an­i­mals,  a and over all the crea­tures
that move ­along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
a  26 
Probable reading of the original Hebrew text (see Syriac); Masoretic Text the earth