CREATION/Bereishit
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Translation of text by Professor Everett Fox © 2013
Stained glass by Nancy Katz/Wilmark Studios © 2014
1:1 At the beginning of God’s creating
of the heavens and the earth
2 —when the earth was Confusion and Chaos,
darkness over the face of Ocean,
rushing-spirit of God sweeping over the face of the waters—
3 God said: Let there be light! And there was light.
4 God saw the light: that it was good.God separated the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
There was setting, there was dawning: day one.
6 God said:Let there be a dome amid the waters,
and let it separate waters from waters!
7 So God made the domeand separated the waters that were below the dome from the waters that were above the dome.
And it was so.
8 God called the dome The Heavens.
There was setting, there was dawning: second day.
9 God said:Let the waters under the heavens be gathered to one place,
and let the dry-land be seen!
And it was so.
10 God called the dry-land Earth, and the gathering of the waters he called Seas.
And God saw that it was good.
11 God said:
Let the earth sprout forth with sprouting-growth,
plants seeding forth seeds, fruit trees yielding fruit, after their kind, [and] in which their seed is, upon
the earth!
12 So the earth brought forth sprouting-growth,
plants seeding forth seeds, after their kind, and trees yielding fruit, in which their seed is, after their
kind.
And God saw that it was good.
13 There was setting, there was dawning: third day.
14 God said: Let there be light in the dome of the heavens, to separate the day from the night,
that they may be for signs— for set-times, for days and years,
15 and let them be for lights in the dome of the heavens, to give light upon the earth!
And it was so.
16 God made the two great lights:
the greater light for ruling the day and the smaller light for ruling the night,
and the stars.
17 God placed them in the dome of the heavens,
18 to give light upon the earth, to rule the day and the night, to separate the light from the darkness.
And God saw that it was good.
19 There was setting, there was dawning: fourth day.
20 God said:
Let the waters swarm with a swarm of living beings, and let flying-birds fly above the earth, across
the dome of the heavens!
21 So God created the great sea-serpents
and all living beings that crawl about, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind,
and all winged birds after their kind.
And God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying:
Bear fruit and be many and fill that waters in the seas,
and let the birds be many on earth!
23 There was setting, there was dawning: fifth day.
24 God said:
Let the earth bring forth living beings after their kind,
herd-animals, crawling things, and the wildlife of the earth after their kind!
And it was so.
25 God made the wildlife of the earth after their kind, and the herd-animals after their kind, and all
crawling things of the ground after their kind.
And God saw that it was good.
26 God said:Let us make humankind, in our image, after our likeness!
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, herd-animals, all the earth,
and all crawling things that crawl about on the earth!
27 So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God did he create it,
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them;
God said to them:
Bear fruit and be many and fill the earth
and subdue it!
Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, and all living things that crawl about
on the earth!
29 And God said:
Here, I give you
all plants seeding forth seeds that are upon the face of all the earth,
and all trees in which there is tree fruit seeding forth seeds:
for you shall they be, for eating;
30 and also for all the living things of the earth, for all the birds of the heavens, for all that crawls about
on the earth in which there is living being—
all green plants for eating.
And it was so.
31 Now God saw all that he had made,
and here: it was exceedingly good!
There was setting, there was dawning: the sixth day.
2:1 Thus were finished the heavens and the earth, with all their array.
2 God had finished, on the seventh day, his work that he had made, and then he ceased,
on the seventh day, from all his work that he had made.
3 God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it,
for on it he ceased from all his work, that by creating, God had made.
17:7 I establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you,
throughout their generations as a covenant for the ages,
to be God to you, and to your seed after you.
Note that while the English translation reads left to right, the artistic interpretation, like the Hebrew, reads right to left.