In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. | In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and barren, and darkness covered the abyss while the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. |
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. | You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am wonderfully made; awesome are your works, as I know very well. |
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For every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God. | For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all is God. |
For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. | Ever since the creation of the world the invisible attributes of God’s eternal power and divine nature have been clearly understood and perceived through the things he has made. Therefore, the conduct of these people is inexcusable. |
O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you! | Ah, Lord God, you made the heavens and the earth by your great power and your outstretched arm. Nothing is impossible for you. |
And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation. | God blessed the seventh day and he consecrated it, for on it he rested from all the work he had done when he created all things. |
For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. | For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. |
I look up to the mountains— does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth! | I lift up my eyes to the mountains; from where will I receive help? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. |
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. | For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for a life of good works that God had prepared for us to do. |
So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. | God created mankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. |
The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. | The heavens were made by the word of the Lord, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. |
Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. | Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the eternal God, the Creator of the earth’s farthest boundaries. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding cannot be scrutinized. |
Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. | He has made everything suitable for its time, and he has given men a sense of past and future, but they never have the slightest comprehension of what God has wrought from beginning to end. |
Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God. | Before the mountains were brought forth or the earth and the world came into existence, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. |
For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. | Indeed, creation itself eagerly awaits the revelation of the children of God. |
Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” | And God said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the wild animals and reptiles that crawl upon the earth.” |
This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. | This is the day that the Lord has made; let us exult and rejoice in it. |
The Lord’s home reaches up to the heavens, while its foundation is on the earth. He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The Lord is his name! | He builds his upper chambers in the heavens and establishes his vault of the sky over the earth— the Lord is his name. |
Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. | Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. |
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! | Consequently, anyone united to Christ is a new creation. The old order has passed away. Behold, all has become new. |
And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang: “Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.” | Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.” |
For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ | For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’ As even your own poets have said, ‘We are all his offspring.’ |
God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. | Through him all things came into existence, and without him there was nothing. That which came to be. |
What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’ | Woe to anyone who rises up against his Maker, or to the pot that is displeased with the potter. Does the clay say to the one who molds it, “What are you doing? Your work makes no sense.” |
He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession. | By his own choice he gave us birth through the way of truth so that we may be a kind of firstfruits of all his creation. |