Genesis 2

²On the seventh day, God stopped working and rested from everything He had made.

³God blessed the seventh day and made it special — a holy day of rest.

⁴This is the story of how the sky and the earth were made by God.

⁵Before any plants grew, there was no rain yet and no one to take care of the ground.

⁶A mist rose up from the ground and watered all the land.

⁷God shaped a man from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him — and the man came alive!

⁸God planted a beautiful garden called Eden and put the man He had made right in it.

⁹God grew beautiful trees with delicious fruit in the garden — including the tree of life and a special tree He told them not to eat from.

¹⁰A river flowed through Eden to water the garden, and it split into four rivers.

¹¹The first river was called Pishon, and it flowed around a land that had gold.

¹²That land had good gold, sweet-smelling resin, and precious onyx stones.

¹³The second river was called Gihon, and it wound through the land of Cush.

¹⁴The third river was the Hiddekel, flowing east toward Assyria. The fourth was the Euphrates.

¹⁵God placed the man in the garden to take care of it and look after it.

¹⁶God told the man: 'You can eat from any tree in the garden freely!'

¹⁷But God said: 'Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — if you do, you will die.'

¹⁸God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a perfect helper for him.'

¹⁹God made all the animals and brought them to Adam to name. Whatever Adam called each creature, that became its name.

²⁰Adam named every animal — but none of them was a perfect companion for him.

²¹God put Adam into a deep sleep, took one of his ribs, and closed the place up again.

²²God shaped the rib into a woman and brought her to the man.

²³Adam said, 'She is like me — made from my own bone and flesh! She will be called Woman because she came from Man.'

²⁴That is why a man and woman leave their families, come together as husband and wife, and become one family.

²⁵Adam and Eve had no need to be ashamed — they were perfectly made and perfectly loved by God.