The Message Prayerful Reading Bible Sampler - Flipbook - Page 21
3
GENESIS
d d d
Heaven and Earth
1-2 First this: God created the Heavens
and E
arth—all you see, all you don’t
see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s
Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery
abyss.
1
3-5 God
spoke: “Light!”
And light appeared.
God saw that light was good
and separated light from dark.
God named the light Day,
he named the dark Night.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day One.
6-8 God
spoke: “Sky! In the middle of the
waters;
separate water from water!”
God made sky.
He separated the water under sky
from the water above sky.
And there it was:
he named sky the Heavens;
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Two.
9-10 God
spoke: “Separate!
Water-beneath-Heaven, gather into
one place;
Land, appear!”
And there it was.
God named the land Earth.
He named the pooled water Ocean.
God saw that it was good.
11-13 God
spoke: “Earth, green up! Grow
all varieties
of seed-bearing plants,
Every sort of fruit-bearing tree.”
And there it was.
Earth produced green seed-bearing
plants,
all varieties,
And fruit-bearing trees of all sorts.
God saw that it was good.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Three.
14-15 God
spoke: “Lights! Come out!
Shine in Heaven’s sky!
Separate Day from Night.
Mark seasons and days and years,
Lights in Heaven’s sky to give light to
Earth.”
And there it was.
16-19 God
made two big lights, the larger
to take charge of Day,
The smaller to be in charge of Night;
and he made the stars.
God placed them in the heavenly sky
to light up Earth
And oversee Day and Night,
to separate light and dark.
God saw that it was good.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Four.
20-23 God
spoke: “Swarm, Ocean, with fish
and all sea life!
Birds, fly through the sky over Earth!”
God created the huge whales,
all the swarm of life in the waters,
And every kind and species of flying
birds.
God saw that it was good.
God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce!
Fill Ocean!
Birds, reproduce on Earth!”
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Five.
24-25 God
spoke: “Earth, generate life!
Every sort and kind:
cattle and reptiles and wild animals—
all kinds.”
And there it was:
wild animals of every kind,