The snake was sneakier than any of the other wild animals that the LORD God had made. One day it came to the woman and asked, “Did God tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?”
The woman answered, “God said we could eat fruit from any tree in the garden, except the one in the middle. He told us not to eat fruit from that tree or even to touch it. If we do, we will die.”
“No, you won't!” the snake replied. “God understands what will happen on the day you eat fruit from that tree. You will see what you have done, and you will know the difference between right and wrong, just as God does.”
The woman stared at the fruit. It looked beautiful and tasty. She wanted the wisdom that it would give her, and she ate some of the fruit. Her husband was there with her, so she gave some to him, and he ate it too. At once they saw what they had done, and they realized they were naked. Then they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
Late in the afternoon, when the breeze began to blow, the man and woman heard the LORD God walking in the garden. So they hid behind some trees.
The LORD God called out to the man and asked, “Where are you?”
The man answered, “I was naked, and when I heard you walking through the garden, I was frightened and hid!”
“How did you know you were naked?” God asked. “Did you eat any fruit from that tree in the middle of the garden?”
“It was the woman you put here with me,” the man said. “She gave me some of the fruit, and I ate it.”
The LORD God then asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The snake tricked me,” she answered, “and I ate some of that fruit.”
So the LORD God said to the snake:
“Because of what you have done,
you will be the only animal
to suffer this curse—
For as long as you live,
you will crawl on your stomach
and eat dirt.
You and this woman
will hate each other;
your descendants and hers
will always be enemies.
One of hers will strike you
on the head,
and you will strike him
on the heel.”
Then the LORD God said to the woman,
“You will suffer terribly
when you give birth.
But you will still desire
your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
The LORD said to the man,
“You listened to your wife
and ate the fruit
I told you not to eat.
And so, the ground
will be under a curse
because of what you did.
As long as you live,
you will have to struggle
to grow enough food.
Your food will be plants,
but the ground will produce
thorns and thistles.
You will sweat all your life
to earn a living;
you were made out of soil,
and you will once again
turn into soil.”
The man Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all who live.
Then the LORD God made clothes out of animal skins for the man and his wife.
The LORD said, “They now know the difference between right and wrong, just as we do. But they must not be allowed to eat fruit from the tree that lets them live forever.” So the LORD God sent them out of the Garden of Eden, where they would have to work the ground from which the man had been made. Then God put winged creatures at the entrance to the garden and a flaming, flashing sword to guard the way to the life-giving tree.
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