Genesis 1:23 (WEB)

Passage

There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

Nearby Context

Genesis 1:21 God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

Genesis 1:23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

Genesis 1:24 God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.

Genesis 1:25 God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "evening", "morning", and "fifth". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "evening" and "morning", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 22's "God blessed them saying Be fruitful and..." into verse 24's "God said Let the earth produce living...", so "evening" and "morning" belong inside that flow. In Genesis context, the local focus is creation, human rebellion, covenant promise, and God's providence.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "evening" and "morning" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.