Compare Genesis 1:1-2 in Four Translations

In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep water. The Spirit of God was hovering over the water.
GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)
Meaning-for-Meaning (Closest Natural Equivalence)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
English Standard Version (ESV)
Word-for-Word (Formal Equivalence)

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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
New Living Translation (NLT)
Thought-for-Thought (Functional Equivalence)

First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.
The Message (MSG)
Paraphrase (Retelling)

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