Study Desk

God gave them his blessing and said: Have a lot of children! Fill the earth with people and bring it under your control. Rule over the fish in the ocean, the birds in the sky, and every animal on the earth.

God looked at what he had done. All of it was very good! Evening came and then morning—that was the sixth day.

The Seventh Day By the seventh day God had finished his work, and so he rested.

God blessed the seventh day and made it special because on that day he rested from his work.

That's how God created the heavens and the earth. When the Lord God made the heavens and the earth,

no grass or plants were growing anywhere. God had not yet sent any rain, and there was no one to work the land.

The Lord God took a handful of soil and made a man. God breathed life into the man, and the man started breathing.

The Lord God placed all kinds of beautiful trees and fruit trees in the garden. Two other trees were in the middle of the garden. One of the trees gave life—the other gave the power to know the difference between right and wrong.

The Lord God put the man in the Garden of Eden to take care of it and to look after it.

The Lord God said, "It isn't good for the man to live alone. I need to make a suitable partner for him."

So the Lord God made him fall into a deep sleep, and he took out one of the man's ribs. Then after closing the man's side,

the Lord made a woman out of the rib. The Lord God brought her to the man,

The snake was sneakier than any of the other wild animals that the Lord God had made. One day it came to the woman and asked, "Did God tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?"

The woman answered, "God said we could eat fruit from any tree in the garden,

"God understands what will happen on the day you eat fruit from that tree. You will see what you have done, and you will know the difference between right and wrong, just as God does."

Late in the afternoon a breeze began to blow, and the man and woman heard the Lord God walking in the garden. They were frightened and hid behind some trees.

"How did you know you were naked?" God asked. "Did you eat any fruit from that tree in the middle of the garden?"

The Lord God then asked the woman, "What have you done?" "The snake tricked me," she answered. "And I ate some of that fruit."

So the Lord God said to the snake: "Because of what you have done, you will be the only animal to suffer this curse— For as long as you live, you will crawl on your stomach and eat dirt.

Then the Lord God made clothes out of animal skins for the man and his wife.