God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
Parallel translations
- WEB God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.
- KJV And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
- NKJV God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
- NASB God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
- NLT God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God names day and night, and the first day ends. Naming shows God's authority over what he has made, and time itself is his gift.
Overview
By naming the light 'day' and the darkness 'night,' God exercises lordship over creation, since in the ancient world to name something was to have authority over it. The refrain 'there was evening and there was morning' marks the rhythm of ordered time that God establishes from the start. Faithful Christians differ over whether these 'days' are ordinary 24-hour periods or a literary framework, but all agree the passage teaches that God alone orders time and creation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 74:16The day is Yours, and also the night; You established the moon and the sun.
- Isa 45:7I form the light and create the darkness; I bring prosperity and create calamity. I, the LORD, do all these things.
- Ps 104:20You bring darkness, and it becomes night, when all the beasts of the forest prowl.
- 1 Th 5:5For you are all sons of the light and sons of the day; we do not belong to the night or to the darkness.
- Jer 33:20“This is what the LORD says: If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night cease to occupy their appointed time,
- Gen 8:22As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.”
- Ps 19:2Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.
- Gen 1:8God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
- Eph 5:13But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself.
- 1 Cor 3:13his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work.
- Gen 1:31And God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
- Gen 1:23And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
- Gen 1:19And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
- Gen 1:13And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Lay
The single best free starting point for Genesis 1–11 — clear, visual, and faithful to the literary design.
Pastoral
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 1:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.