The Generations of Heaven and Earth

4 These are the generations[fn] of heaven[fn] and earth[fn] when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made earth and heaven[fn]— 5 before any plant of the field was[fn] on earth, and before any plant of the field[fn] had sprung up, because Yahweh God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no human being to cultivate the ground, 6 but a stream would rise from the earth and water the whole face of the ground— 7 when[fn] Yahweh God formed the man[fn] of dust from the ground, and he blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

8 And Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man[fn] whom he had formed. 9 And Yahweh God caused to grow every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food. And the tree of life was in the midst of the garden, along with[fn] the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 Now[fn] a river flowed out from Eden that watered the garden, and from there it diverged and became four branches. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It went around all the land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stones are there.) 13 And the name of the second is Gihon. It went around all the land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third is Tigris. It flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 And Yahweh God took the man[fn] and set him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it. 16 And Yahweh God commanded the man,[fn] saying, “From every tree of the garden you may freely eat,[fn] 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat[fn] from it you shall surely die.”[fn]

18 Then[fn] Yahweh God said, “it is not good that the man[fn] is alone. I will make for him a helper as his counterpart.”[fn] 19 And out of the ground Yahweh God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky,[fn] and he brought each to the man[fn] to see what he would call it. And whatever the man[fn] called that living creature was its name. 20 And the man[fn] gave names[fn] to every domesticated animal and to the birds of heaven[fn] and to all the wild animals.[fn] But for the man there was not found a helper as his counterpart.[fn] 21 And Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man.[fn] While[fn] he slept, he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh where it had been.[fn] 22 And Yahweh God fashioned the rib which he had taken from the man[fn] into a woman and brought her to the man.[fn]

• 23 And the man[fn] said, “[fn] bone from my bones
  • and flesh from my flesh;
• [fn] shall be called ‘Woman,’
  • for[fn] from man.”

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cling to his wife, and they shall be as one flesh. 25 And the man[fn] and his wife, both of them, were naked, and they were not ashamed.