2
Chapter 2
1In that way God finished making the heavens and the earth, and everything that was in them.
2The seventh day came. Then God stopped the work that he had been doing. He had finished his work and he rested on the seventh day.
3God blessed the seventh day. He made it a special day, because he had finished making everything. He did not work on that day.
God makes a man and a woman
4This is what happened when God made the heavens and the earth.
When the Lord God made the heavens and the earth, 5there were no plants or grasses growing on the earth. #2:5 When we write Lord like this, it is a special name for God. Sometimes people write it as ‘Yahweh’, or as ‘Jehovah’. It means ‘I am who I am’. This shows that God has always been alive and he will always be alive. That was because the Lord God had not sent any rain on the earth. Also, there was nobody to dig the soil so that plants would grow. 6But streams of water were coming up from the earth. The water made all the top of the ground wet.
7Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground and he made a man. He breathed air into the nose of the man to give him life. So the man became alive.
8The Lord God planted a garden. It was in the east, in a place called Eden. #2:8 ‘in the east’ means that it was east of the land of Canaan. Canaan was the land that God gave to his people as their home much later on. God took the man that he had made and he put him in the garden. 9The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the ground there. The trees were beautiful to look at. The fruit from the trees was good for people to eat. #2:9 Eden was a very good place for the man to live. Everything that the man needed was there. In the middle of the garden were two special trees. One was the tree that gives life. The other was the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is evil. #2:9 Fruit from the first tree would cause people to live for ever with God. Fruit from the second tree would cause people to know about good things and bad things. They would understand the difference between these.
10A river began in Eden. It went through the garden and it gave water for the ground. After that, it became four separate rivers. 11The name of the first river is the Pishon. It goes through the whole land of Havilah. There is gold in that land. 12The gold there is very good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also in Havilah. #2:12 Bdellium is something that has a nice smell. It comes from certain trees when you cut them. Onyx is a valuable stone.
13The name of the second river is the Gihon. It goes through the whole land of Cush. 14The third river is called the Tigris. It goes along the east side of Assyria. The fourth river is called the Euphrates.
15The Lord God took the man and he put him in the Garden of Eden. God wanted the man to work in the garden and to take care of it. 16Then the Lord God told the man, ‘You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden, as much as you like. 17But you must not eat any fruit from the tree that gives knowledge of good and evil. If you do eat fruit from that tree, that day you will certainly die.’
18Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to live alone. I will make a helper who is right for him.’ #2:18 The helper was someone to live with the man. She would be the right person for him and would help him.
19The Lord God took soil from the ground and he made all the animals and birds. He brought them to the man. God wanted to know what names the man would call them. Whatever the man called each living thing, that became its name. 20So the man gave names to the farm animals, to the birds in the sky and to all the other animals.
But none of these animals was the right helper for the man. 21So the Lord God caused the man to sleep. #2:21 The Lord God caused the man to sleep. The man did not just sleep because he was tired. He would sleep like that until God made him wake. While the man was sleeping, God took a rib from the man. Then he closed up the place in his body and he covered it again. #2:21 A rib is a bone in the side of someone's body. God made the woman from the rib that he took from the man. 22The Lord God used the man's rib to make a woman. He brought the woman to the man.
23Then the man said, ‘Finally, this is someone who is right for me. She has bones that are taken from my bones. Her body comes from my body. I will call her “woman” because God used me, a man, to make her.’
24Because of this, when a man marries, he leaves his father and his mother. Instead, God joins the man and his wife together. The two people become as one body. #2:24 This verse tells us about how a man and his wife should live after their marriage. They become a new family that is separate from their parents' families.
25The man and his wife were not wearing any clothes. But they did not feel ashamed.