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 when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of 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. | For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that 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 things 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 his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse. |
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! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard 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. | So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. |
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 to him are all things. To him be the 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 hills— from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made 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 what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. |
So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. | So God created humankind 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. | By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, 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. | Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. |
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; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the 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 ever you had formed the earth and the world, 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. | For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing 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.” | Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to 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 wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps 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 rejoice and be glad 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! | Who builds his upper chambers in the heavens, and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the surface of 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, who made 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! | So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything 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, singing, “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 some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ |
God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. | All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being. |
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 you who strive with your Maker, earthen vessels with the potter! Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, “What are you making”? or “Your work has no handles”? |
He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession. | In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. |