Genesis 1

Genesis 1 read aloud, in a fresh direct translation from the Hebrew — plain modern English, nothing added. Translator's notes: • Genesis 1:1 — bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁית), literally "in-the-beginning-of": chose "When Elohim began creating the sky and the earth…". Alternatives: "In the beginning, God created…" (the noun read as a free-standing heading). Why: the word is cast in the joined, dependent form (no "the," ending shaped to lean on what follows), the same shape Hebrew uses to open a sentence with a time clause; the dependent reading follows the grammar as it stands. • Genesis 1:2 — ruach elohim (רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים): chose "a wind from Elohim". Alternatives: "the Spirit of God," "the breath of God." Why: ruach can mean wind, breath, or spirit, but here it sits among physical things — darkness, the deep, the waters — and what it does is hover over water; "wind" keeps the scene physical and adds nothing the verse doesn't say. • Genesis 1:6 — raqia (רָקִיעַ): chose "expanse". Alternatives: "vault," "dome," "firmament." Why: raqia comes from a root meaning to beat or spread out thin, like hammered metal — the Hebrew pictures something spread out overhead; "expanse" carries the spreading without settling whether the thing is solid. • Genesis 1:26 — na'aseh adam (נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם): chose "Let us make humankind in our image" (the plural kept). Alternatives: taking the plural as a royal "we," or as God addressing a heavenly court. Why: na'aseh adam is "let us make humankind," with "in our image" — the plural is what the text says; the translation keeps it on the page and leaves the explaining to the reader. • Genesis 1:1 — אֱלֹהִים (Elohim): chose "Elohim" — the Hebrew word kept as-is. Alternatives: "God", "gods". Why: Elohim is plural in form, but every verb it takes in this chapter is singular ("he created", "he said", "he saw"); rather than settle that tension in English, the translation keeps the text's own word and lets the reader hear it. The one genuinely plural moment, "Let us make" in verse 26, is kept plural as written.