Genesis 2:4-17

Genesis 2:4-17 NCV

This is the story of the creation of the sky and the earth. When the LORD God first made the earth and the sky, there were still no plants on the earth. Nothing was growing in the fields because the LORD God had not yet made it rain on the land. And there was no person to care for the ground, but a mist would rise up from the earth and water all the ground. Then the LORD God took dust from the ground and formed a man from it. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nose, and the man became a living person. Then the LORD God planted a garden in the east, in a place called Eden, and put the man he had formed into it. The LORD God caused every beautiful tree and every tree that was good for food to grow out of the ground. In the middle of the garden, God put the tree that gives life and also the tree that gives the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed through Eden and watered the garden. From there the river branched out to become four rivers. The first river, named Pishon, flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is excellent. Bdellium and onyx are also found there. The second river, named Gihon, flows around the whole land of Cush. The third river, named Tigris, flows out of Assyria toward the east. The fourth river is the Euphrates. The LORD God put the man in the garden of Eden to care for it and work it. The LORD God commanded him, “You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil. If you ever eat fruit from that tree, you will die!”

Read Genesis 2