Old Testament
Genesis
50 chapters
Start reading: Genesis 1About this book
Genesis is the book of beginnings. It opens with God speaking the world into being and setting humanity, made in his image, in a good creation. Then it traces how that good order fractures: the first disobedience, the murder of a brother, the corruption that brings the flood, and the scattering at Babel. Against that darkening backdrop, God calls one man, Abram, and promises to bless all the families of the earth through his descendants. The rest of the book follows that promise through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, a family marked by faith and failure alike: barren wives, rival brothers, deception, famine and forgiveness. What holds the story together is not the heroism of its people but the faithfulness of the God who keeps his word. The book closes with the family settled in Egypt and a dying request that points forward to the exodus. Christians have long read Genesis as the foundation of the whole Bible, since creation, sin, judgment, covenant and hope all begin here.
- Author
- Jewish and Christian tradition credits Moses; many modern scholars see a longer process of composition and editing.
- Date
- Traditionally the time of Moses (c. 15th–13th century BC); critical views place the final form centuries later.
- Audience
- Israel, gathered as God's covenant people, learning where they came from and who called them.
Themes
Creation and human dignityThe fall and its consequencesGod's covenant promiseProvidence through sufferingBlessing for all nations
Outline
- 1:1–11:32Creation, fall and scattering
- 12:1–25:11Abraham and the promise
- 25:12–36:43Isaac and Jacob
- 37:1–50:26Joseph and the move to Egypt
Key verses
Chapters of Genesis
- 1Genesis 1The book opens with God creating the heavens and the earth in six days, giving form to what was empty and ordering light, sky, seas, land, heavenly lights, creatures of water and air, and land animals.
- 2Genesis 2This chapter returns to the creation of humanity with a closer view.
- 3Genesis 3The serpent questions God's word and deceives the woman, who eats the forbidden fruit and gives some to her husband.
- 4Genesis 4Adam and Eve have Cain and Abel.
- 5Genesis 5This chapter is a genealogy running ten generations from Adam to Noah, with very long lifespans and the repeated "and he died," underscoring the weight of the fall.
- 6Genesis 6Human evil grows so great that God grieves having made humanity and decides to bring a flood.
- 7Genesis 7Noah enters the ark with his family and the animals, seven days before the flood begins.
- 8Genesis 8God remembers Noah and sends a wind over the earth, and the waters begin to recede.
- 9Genesis 9God blesses Noah and his sons, tells them to multiply, and permits eating meat with a restriction on blood, declaring that whoever sheds human blood will have their own blood shed by a person, for humanity bears God's image.
- 10Genesis 10The so-called Table of Nations lists the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth and shows how peoples spread across the earth after the flood.
- 11Genesis 11The whole earth shared one language, and people decide to build a city and a tower reaching the sky to make a name for themselves.
- 12Genesis 12God calls Abram to leave his country and relatives for a land he will show him, promising to make him a great nation, to bless him, and to bless all the families of the earth through him.
- 13Genesis 13Abram returns from Egypt and again calls on the Lord's name at Bethel.
- 14Genesis 14Four kings defeat five regional kings, including those of Sodom and Gomorrah, and take Lot captive.
- 15Genesis 15God speaks to Abram in a vision, assuring him he need not fear because God himself is his protector.
- 16Genesis 16Sarai, childless, gives Abram her Egyptian servant Hagar so that she may have offspring through her.
- 17Genesis 17When Abram is ninety-nine, God appears as God Almighty and confirms his covenant: he changes Abram's name to Abraham, "father of many," and Sarai's to Sarah.
- 18Genesis 18Three visitors come to Abraham's tent by the oaks of Mamre, and he hurries to offer them a meal.
- 19Genesis 19Two angels reach Sodom at evening, and Lot insists on sheltering them.
- 20Genesis 20Abraham travels to Gerar and, fearing for his life, tells King Abimelech that Sarah is his sister.
- 21Genesis 21At last Isaac is born to Sarah and Abraham, just as God said, and Abraham circumcises him on the eighth day.
- 22Genesis 22God tests Abraham by asking him to offer Isaac, the son of promise, on a mountain in Moriah.
- 23Genesis 23Sarah dies at Hebron at the age of 127, and Abraham mourns her.
- 24Genesis 24Abraham sends his senior servant to find a wife for Isaac among his own relatives, and the servant travels to Nahor.
- 25Genesis 25Abraham marries Keturah, fathers more children, and dies at a good age; Isaac and Ishmael bury him together.
- 26Genesis 26During a famine God tells Isaac not to go down to Egypt but to stay in Gerar and repeats to him the promises made to Abraham.
- 27Genesis 27Old and nearly blind, Isaac tells Esau to hunt game and prepare a meal so that he may give him the blessing.
- 28Genesis 28Isaac blesses Jacob and sends him to Paddan-aram to find a wife from Rebekah's family.
- 29Genesis 29Jacob arrives at a well near Haran and meets Rachel, Laban's younger daughter, who is bringing her father's sheep.
- 30Genesis 30The rivalry between Rachel and Leah deepens as each gives her servant to Jacob and the children multiply.
- 31Genesis 31After twenty years, Laban's sons resent Jacob's wealth, and God tells him to return to his homeland.
- 32Genesis 32Angels meet Jacob as he nears Canaan, and he sends messengers ahead to Esau, who is coming with four hundred men.
- 33Genesis 33Jacob limps forward to meet Esau, bowing seven times, and braces for the worst.
- 34Genesis 34Dinah, Jacob's daughter, is violated by Shechem, a prince of the region, who then wants to marry her.
- 35Genesis 35God tells Jacob to go up to Bethel and settle there.
- 36Genesis 36This chapter records the family line of Esau, also called Edom.
- 37Genesis 37Joseph, Jacob's favorite son, wears a special robe and tells his brothers two dreams in which they bow down to him.
- 38Genesis 38The story of Joseph pauses to follow Judah, who leaves his brothers and marries a Canaanite woman.
- 39Genesis 39In Egypt, Joseph serves Potiphar, and the LORD's presence makes everything he does succeed, so he is put in charge of the household.
- 40Genesis 40In prison Joseph looks after two of Pharaoh's officials, the cupbearer and the baker, who have both had troubling dreams.
- 41Genesis 41Two years later Pharaoh has two dreams, of seven fat cows eaten by seven thin ones and of seven healthy heads of grain swallowed by seven thin ones.
- 42Genesis 42The famine reaches Canaan, and Jacob sends ten of his sons to buy grain in Egypt, keeping Benjamin at home.
- 43Genesis 43When the grain runs out, Judah persuades Jacob to send Benjamin, pledging himself as surety for the boy's safety.
- 44Genesis 44Joseph has his silver cup planted in Benjamin's sack, then sends his steward to overtake the brothers and accuse them of theft.
- 45Genesis 45Unable to control himself any longer, Joseph clears the room and reveals himself to his brothers, weeping so loudly that the Egyptians hear.
- 46Genesis 46Israel sets out for Egypt and stops at Beersheba to offer sacrifices.
- 47Genesis 47Joseph presents five of his brothers and then Jacob to Pharaoh, who settles the family in the best of the land, in Goshen.
- 48Genesis 48Joseph brings his sons Manasseh and Ephraim to the dying Jacob, who recalls God's promise at Luz and adopts the two boys as his own, so that each will become a tribe.
- 49Genesis 49Jacob gathers his twelve sons and speaks over each one what will happen in days to come.
- 50Genesis 50Joseph weeps over his father, has him embalmed, and leads a great funeral procession to Canaan to bury him in Machpelah.