¹ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth— ²Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. ³And God said, “Let there be light!” And there was light. ⁴And God saw the light, that it was good, and God caused there to be a separation between the light and between the darkness. ⁵And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

¹⁶ To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase ⌞your pain in childbearing⌟; in pain you shall bear children. And to your husband shall be your desire. And he shall rule over you.” ¹⁷ And to Adam he said, “Because you listened to the voice of your wife and you ate from the tree ⌞from which I forbade you to eat⌟, the ground shall be cursed on your account. In pain you shall eat from it all the days of your life. ¹⁸ And thorns and thistles shall sprout for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.

²and one of my brothers, Hanani, came with some men from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had escaped the captivity and about Jerusalem. ³They replied to me, “The survivors in the province who have survived the captivity are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned in the fire.” ⁴ When I heard these words, I sat and wept and mourned for days, and I was fasting and praying before the God of the heavens.