Genesis 1:31
“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
King James Version (KJV)
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This verse concludes the sixth day and the entire creative week, summing up God's assessment of all He has made before the seventh day of rest.
What Does Genesis 1:31 Mean?
Genesis 1:31 means that when God looked at everything He had created, He pronounced it not merely good but "very good." Throughout the chapter God has paused to call individual works "good," but here, surveying the whole, He raises the verdict. The finished creation, taken together, delights its Maker.
This closing declaration matters deeply. It tells the reader that the physical world -- earth and sky, sea and creature, body and breath -- is good in God's own estimation. Matter is not a mistake to escape, and the body is not a prison to be despised. The word "behold" invites the reader to stop and look with God at the goodness of what He has done. The phrase "very good" also frames everything that follows: whatever later disrupts the world, the world began whole and blessed. The God who made it cared for it and called it beautiful. This verse anchors a hopeful view of creation -- that the world is fundamentally a gift, made by a good God who takes joy in His work.
In the Original Language
The Hebrew "tov me'od" (very good) intensifies the repeated "tov" of earlier days, marking the completed whole as exceedingly good.
Cross References
“For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving.”
- 1 Timothy 4:4
“O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.”
- Psalm 104:24
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
- Psalm 19:1
Application
Receive the created world and your own body as good gifts from God, resisting the lie that the physical realm is somehow beneath His blessing.