The Story of Creation – A More Literal Reading

Below is the translation read tonight. This is my translation and is intended to be more literally true to the Hebrew. 

In the beginning when God began to create the Sky and the Land – the Land was unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and the breath of God brooded over the water – and God spoke saying “Let there be light”; and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.

And God said, “Let there be a firm expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate water from water.” And God made the firm expanse, and it separated the water which was below the firm expanse from the water which was above the firm expanse. And it was so. God called the firm expanse Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

God said, “Let the waters below the sky be gathered together into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Land, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. God saw that this was good. And God said, “Let the land put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the land.” And it was so. The land brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that this was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

God said, “Let there be lights in the firm expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night; that they may serve as signs and for seasons and for days and years, and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the land.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to dominate the day, and the lesser light to dominate the night; and the stars. And God set them in the firm expanse of the sky to shine light upon the land, to dominate both the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that this was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and birds that fly above the land across the firm expanse of the sky.” God created the great sea monsters and all the living creatures of every kind that creep, which the waters brought forth in swarms, and all the winged birds according to its kind. And God saw that this was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the land.” And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

God said, “Let the land bring forth every kind of living creature: cattle, creeping things, and wild beasts of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild beasts of every kind and cattle of every kind, and all kinds of creeping things of the land. And God saw that this was good.

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the land, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the land.” So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said directly to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the land and master it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the land.”  And God said to them, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the land, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to all the animals on the land, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the land, everything in which there is the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and saw that it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

Thus the sky and the land were finished, and all the host of them. On the seventh day, God finished the work that he had been doing, and he ceased to work on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from the work of creation that he had done. This is the story of the sky and the land when they were created.