And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were 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.
- BSB God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—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 thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
- Isa 45:7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
- Ps 104:20Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
- 1 Th 5:5Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
- Jer 33:20Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;
- Gen 8:22While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
- Ps 19:2Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
- Gen 1:8And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
- Eph 5:13But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
- 1 Cor 3:13Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
- Gen 1:31And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
- Gen 1:23And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
- Gen 1:19And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
- Gen 1:13And the evening and the morning were 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
The beloved devotional-pastoral classic, free and public domain — warm, quotable, verse by verse.
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.