BIBLE VERSE STUDY
Genesis 1:31 — The Completion of Creation
God surveys the totality of His completed creative work and pronounces it very good, then the sixth day closes with the standard evening-morning formula.
Scripture
31And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
What this passage means
Genesis 1:31 serves as the culminating verdict of the creation account. After six days of forming and filling the heavens, earth, and living creatures, God looks at the totality — 'everything that he had made' — and renders an evaluative judgment. The phrase 'it was very good' is distinct from the repeated 'it was good' of the prior days. The intensifier 'very' (Hebrew מְאֹד, H3966) elevates the assessment, signaling that the completed whole exceeds the goodness of its individual parts. The evaluation encompasses everything brought into being, including humanity (introduced in 1:26–27) and the food-giving order for animals and humans (1:29–30).
The verse also closes the sixth day with the recurring temporal marker — 'there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.' This formula, used after each of the first six days, brackets the day's events and signals completion. The use of 'behold' (Hebrew הִנֵּה, H2009) in the middle of the verse draws attention to the moment of divine appraisal, inviting the reader to look at the same totality God inspects. The sixth day is significant because it includes the creation of humankind, the only creature made in God's image (1:27), making this closing verdict especially weighty.
By ending the work week on this unqualified affirmation, the text establishes the created order as theologically positive in its original state. Nothing within the six days is marked as flawed, hostile, or deficient; the narrative locates disorder, pain, and curse elsewhere, beginning in Genesis 3. The verse therefore functions both retrospectively — summing up days one through six — and prospectively, setting the baseline against which later disruption is measured.
Context
Genesis 1 unfolds as a structured six-day account in which God speaks, separates, gathers, and fills, repeatedly evaluating each stage as 'good.' The first three days establish realms (light/darkness, sky/waters, land/vegetation), and the second three fill those realms with corresponding inhabitants (lights, sea creatures and birds, land animals and humanity). Days one through five each close with God's assessment that the work 'was good,' but none of them is called 'very good.' The sixth day introduces the creation of humankind in God's image (1:26–27), the divine blessing to multiply and subdue (1:28), and the provision of plant-based food for humans and animals (1:29–30).
Genesis 1:31 then gathers all six days under a single gaze. The standard day-closing formula — 'there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day' — appears for the final time in this chapter, after which Genesis 2:1–3 shifts to the seventh day, God's rest, and the hallowing of the Sabbath. Within the chapter's own movement, 1:31 is therefore the hinge: it closes the six-day creative work and prepares the reader for the sanctification of the seventh day.
Key words in the original
- H2896 The Hebrew טוֹב (ṭôḇ) means 'good' in the broadest sense. In Genesis 1 it functions as God's evaluative verdict on His work. Here in 1:31 it is modified by מְאֹד ('very'), elevating the judgment from the daily 'good' to a superlative assessment of the completed whole.
- H2009 הִנֵּה (hinnēh, 'behold') is an attention-drawing particle. In 1:31 it interrupts the narrative to direct the reader's gaze to the totality of creation that God is surveying, marking the moment of divine appraisal as climactic.
- H3605 כֹּל (kol, 'all/every') here governs 'everything that he had made,' giving the assessment universal scope. No created category is excluded from this closing verdict.
Related verses
- 1 Timothy 4:4 Paul's statement that 'every creature of God is good' echoes the Genesis 1:31 verdict that God's creative output is 'very good,' anchoring the created order as fundamentally good within the New Testament witness.
- Exodus 20:11 The Sabbath commandment grounds Israel's weekly rest in the six-day creation and the closing verdict of Genesis 1:31, linking the 'very good' completion of creation to the structure of covenant time.
- Psalms 104:24 David's praise that God's works are manifold and made in wisdom reflects on the same totality declared 'very good' at the close of the sixth day, framing creation as the display of divine skill.
Common questions
Why does Genesis 1:31 say 'very good' instead of just 'good'?
The intensified 'very good' applies to the totality of creation after the sixth day, including humanity in God's image. The earlier 'good' verdicts (days one through five) evaluated each stage separately; 1:31 sums them into a single superlative assessment of the complete whole.
Does 'very good' mean creation was perfect in every later sense?
Within the bounds of the text provided, 'very good' is the evaluative verdict pronounced at the end of the sixth day. The chapter does not comment on later disruption; questions about what came after this verdict are addressed only in passages beyond chapter 1.
What is the function of the evening-morning formula in 1:31?
The phrase 'there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day' closes the sixth day using the same temporal marker that ends each of the first six days, marking the completion of the day's events before the narrative moves to the seventh day in Genesis 2.