Genesis 3
3
The Temptation and the Fall
1Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” #Mt 10:16; 2Co 11:3; Rv 12:9; 20:2
2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”#Gn 2:17
4“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman.#Jn 8:44 5“In fact, God knows that when#3:5 Lit on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.#1Tm 2:14; Jms 1:14–15; 1Jn 2:16 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Sin’s Consequences
8Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze,#3:8 Lit at the wind of the day and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.#Jb 34:22–23 9So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10And he said, “I heard you#3:10 Lit the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
11Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12The man replied,#Jb 31:33; Pr 28:13 “The woman you gave to be with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
13So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”#Rm 7:11; 2Co 11:3; 1Tm 2:14
14So the Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.#Is 65:25; Mc 7:17
15I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.#3:15 Lit your seed and her seed
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.#Heb 2:14; 1Jn 3:8
16He said to the woman:
I will intensify your labor pains;
you will bear children with painful effort.#Jn 16:21; 1Tm 2:15
Your desire#Gn 4:7 will be for your husband,
yet he will rule over you.
17And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:
The ground is cursed because of you.#Gn 5:29; Rm 8:20–22; Heb 6:8
You will eat from it by means of painful labor#3:17 Lit it through pain
all the days of your life.
18It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.#Gn 2:5
19You will eat bread#3:19 Or food by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,#Ps 90:3; 104:29; Ec 12:7
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.”
20The man named his wife Eve#3:20 Lit Living, or Life because she was the mother of all the living. 21The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.
22The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.”#Gn 2:9; Rv 2:7 23So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.#Ex 25:18–22; Ps 104:4; Ezk 10:1–20; Heb 1:7
© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Genesis 3
3
The Man and Woman Sin
1The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
2“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3“It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
4“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5“God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
6The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
8When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man#3:8 Or Adam, and so throughout the chapter. and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
11“Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
12The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
13Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
14Then the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.
15And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike#3:15 Or bruise; also in 3:15b. your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.#3:16 Or And though you will have desire for your husband, / he will rule over you.”
17And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
18It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.
19By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return.”
Paradise Lost: God’s Judgment
20Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live.#3:20 Eve sounds like a Hebrew term that means “to give life.” 21And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
22Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings#3:22 Or the man; Hebrew reads ha-adam. have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!” 23So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. 24After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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