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Old Testament

Genesis

Genesis is the book of beginnings: creation, the first people, the fall, the flood, and the start of God's rescue plan through Abraham. Its opening chapters set the stage for everything that follows in Scripture.

Genesis 1

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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Genesis 2

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Genesis 2:2
    On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
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  • Genesis 2:2-3
    On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.
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  • Genesis 2:7
    The LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
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  • Genesis 2:9
    Out of the ground the LORD God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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  • Genesis 2:15
    The LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
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  • Genesis 2:18
    The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
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  • Genesis 2:24
    Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.
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  • Genesis 2:25
    The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.
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Genesis 3

Genesis 3:8

Hiding From The Lord

“They heard the LORD God’s voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.”

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Genesis 3:7
    Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.
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  • Genesis 3:8
    They heard the LORD God’s voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
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  • Genesis 3:9
    The LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
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  • Genesis 3:10
    The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
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  • Genesis 3:11
    God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
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  • Genesis 3:16-24
    To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. You will bear children in pain. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and have eaten from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labour all the days of your life. It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field. You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground, for you were taken out of it. For you are dust, and you shall return to dust.” The man called his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all the living. The LORD God made garments of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them. The LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, ” Therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
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  • Genesis 3:21
    The LORD God made garments of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.
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  • Genesis 3:22-24
    The LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, ” Therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
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  • Genesis 3:24
    So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
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Genesis 4

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Genesis 4:26
    A son was also born to Seth, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the LORD’s name.
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Genesis 6

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Genesis 6:8
    But Noah found favour in the LORD’s eyes.
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Genesis 8

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Genesis 8:1
    God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.
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Genesis 15

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Genesis 15:6
    He believed in the LORD, who credited it to him for righteousness.
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Genesis 16

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Genesis 16:11
    The LORD’s angel said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and will bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has heard your affliction.
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Genesis 18

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Genesis 18:4
    Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.
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  • Genesis 18:14
    Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes around, and Sarah will have a son.”
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Genesis 24

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Genesis 24:43
    behold, I am standing by this spring of water. Let it happen, that the maiden who comes out to draw, to whom I will say, “Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,”
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Genesis 30

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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Genesis 31

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Genesis 31:19
    Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep; and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.
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Genesis 32

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Genesis 32:22-31
    He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had. Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. When he saw that he didn’t prevail against him, the man touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained as he wrestled. The man said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.” Jacob said, “I won’t let you go unless you bless me.” He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob”. He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” He said, “Why is it that you ask what my name is?” So he blessed him there. Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for he said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh.
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  • Genesis 32:32
    Therefore the children of Israel don’t eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.
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Genesis 45

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Genesis 45:5
    Now don’t be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
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Genesis 50

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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More about Genesis

Genesis is where everything starts, and it reads like a book that knows it. Before there are nations or laws or kings, there is a garden, a couple, a serpent and a question that still follows us around. We come to it for the big openings: light out of darkness, breath in dust, a promise made to one wandering family that the whole world would somehow be blessed through them. It is ancient and strange in places, but its concerns are not far off. Who made us, what went wrong, and whether God has given up on the mess. Genesis answers the last one with a steady no.

The shape of the book matters. The first eleven chapters move quickly through creation, the first sin, the flood and the scattering at Babel, painting humanity in broad strokes. Then the pace slows right down and stays with people: Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. These are not tidy heroes. They lie, they scheme, they play favourites, and God keeps working through them anyway. That is part of what makes Genesis so honest. It does not pretend that the people God chooses are better than the rest of us. It shows grace landing on the same flawed ground we stand on.

One small moment carries more than its size. In Genesis 3:8 the man and woman hear God walking in the garden and hide among the trees. It is the first time anyone in the Bible runs from God, and it sets a pattern we all recognise: shame makes us want to disappear. Yet notice who goes looking. God is the one who walks, who calls, who comes near even after everything has broken. The hiding is human. The seeking is divine. That single picture quietly tells you how the rest of the Bible will go.

If you have never read Genesis straight through, do not feel you have to solve every hard question on the first pass. Let the stories do their work. Watch how often God makes a promise long before there is any sign it will come true, and how patiently he keeps it across generations who barely deserve it. The book ends not in the promised land but in Egypt, with Joseph forgiving the brothers who sold him and trusting that God meant their wrong for good. That is Genesis in miniature, and it is enough to carry you forward.

Questions about Genesis

Who wrote the book of Genesis?
Jewish and Christian tradition has long ascribed Genesis, along with the first five books of the Bible, to Moses, and many readers still hold to that. In honesty, the book itself names no author, and scholars have debated how its sources came together for a very long time. We would rather not pretend to a certainty the text does not give us. What we can say plainly is that Genesis comes to us as part of the law of Moses and was treasured as Scripture by Israel and by Jesus himself, who quoted from it as authoritative.
What is the main message of Genesis?
Genesis is the book of beginnings, but its deepest theme is that the God who made everything has not abandoned what went wrong with it. Creation is good, something breaks early on, and from that point God sets a long rescue in motion through one family. Again and again he makes promises and keeps them across generations of ordinary, flawed people. Read it and you start to see the whole Bible in seed form: a good world, a real fall, and a faithful God who comes looking for those who hide from him.
How many chapters does Genesis have, and where should I start?
Genesis has fifty chapters, which can feel daunting, so do not feel you must begin at the first verse and grind through. The opening creation chapters are worth reading slowly. After that, many people find the story of Abraham from chapter 12 onwards the easiest way in, because it follows one life and one promise. The Joseph story near the end, chapters 37 to 50, reads almost like a short novel and is a moving place to start if you want something narrative and human.

Topics in Genesis

The themes these verses speak to. Follow one to find related verses from right across the Bible.