Genesis 3
3
Knowledge, not eternal life
1The snake was the most intelligent#3.1 Heb sounds like naked. of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say that you shouldn’t eat from any tree in the garden?”
2The woman said to the snake, “We may eat the fruit of the garden’s trees 3but not the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘Don’t eat from it, and don’t touch it, or you will die.’”
4The snake said to the woman, “You won’t die! 5God knows that on the day you eat from it, you will see clearly and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6The woman saw that the tree was beautiful with delicious food and that the tree would provide wisdom, so she took some of its fruit and ate it, and also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then they both saw clearly and knew that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made garments for themselves.
8During that day’s cool evening breeze, they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden; and the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God in the middle of the garden’s trees. 9The LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10The man#3.10 Or He replied, “I heard your sound in the garden; I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
11He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree, which I commanded you not to eat?”
12The man said, “The woman you gave me, she gave me some fruit#3.12 Heb lacks some fruit. from the tree, and I ate.”
13The LORD God said to the woman, “What have you done?!”
And the woman said, “The snake tricked me, and I ate.”
14The LORD God said to the snake,
“Because you did this,
you are the one cursed
out of all the farm animals,
out of all the wild animals.
On your belly you will crawl,
and dust you will eat
every day of your life.
15I will put contempt
between you and the woman,
between your offspring and hers.
They will strike your head,
but you will strike at their heels.”
16To the woman he said,
“I will make your pregnancy very painful;
in pain you will bear children.
You will desire your husband,
but he will rule over you.”
17To the man he said, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and you ate from the tree that I commanded, ‘Don’t eat from it,’
cursed is the fertile land because of you;
in pain you will eat from it
every day of your life.
18Weeds and thistles will grow for you,
even as you eat the field’s plants;
19by the sweat of your face you will eat bread—
until you return to the fertile land,
since from it you were taken;
you are soil,
to the soil you will return.”
20The man named his wife Eve#3.20 Heb sounds like live. because she is the mother of everyone who lives. 21The LORD God made the man and his wife leather clothes and dressed them. 22The LORD God said, “The human being#3.22 Or man (Heb adam) has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” Now, so he doesn’t stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever, 23the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to farm the fertile land from which he was taken. 24He drove out the human. To the east of the garden of Eden, he stationed winged creatures wielding flaming swords to guard the way to the tree of life.
2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
Genesis 3
3
The snake tricked the woman
1God made lots of animals, but the snake was the animal that had the most brains. He was really smart. One day, the snake went to the woman and said to her, “Did God say, ‘You can’t eat fruit from any of the trees in the garden’? Is that true?”#Revelation 12:9; 20:2
2The woman said, “No, that’s not true. We can eat fruit from those trees there in the garden. 3God said that there is only one tree that we can’t eat from. We can’t eat any fruit that comes from one of the trees that is in the middle of the garden. God will not even let us touch that tree. He said that if we eat fruit from that tree, we will die.”
4The snake said to the woman, “You will not die. 5God knows what will happen if you eat fruit from that tree. He knows that if you eat fruit from that tree, you will know more things, like God himself. You will know if the things you do are good, or if they are bad.”
The man and the woman did the wrong thing
6The woman looked at that tree. It was pretty, and the fruit on that tree looked really good to eat, and she reckoned that if she eats some of that fruit, she will think properly. So the woman got some of that fruit, and she ate it, and she gave some of it to her husband, and he ate that fruit too. 7Straight away, the man and the woman knew more things. They knew that they were naked, and they felt shame. They wanted to make clothes to cover up their naked bodies, so they picked some big leaves from a tree and sewed the leaves together to make some clothes.
The man and the woman tried to hide from God
8Later on, in the cool part of the day, the man and the woman heard God walking in the garden. So they got behind some trees in the garden to hide from God.
9God called out to the man, “Where are you?”
10The man said, “I heard you walking in the garden and I was frightened, because I’m naked. So I hid from you.”
11God asked the man, “How do you know that you are naked? Did you eat some of that fruit from the tree that I told you not to eat from?”
12The man said, “Yes, but it was the woman that you put here with me, she gave me fruit from that tree, so I ate it.”
13Then God said to the woman, “Why did you do that bad thing?”#2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14
The woman said, “That snake tricked me. That’s the reason why I ate that fruit.”
God judged the snake
14Then God said, “Snake, you did the wrong thing, so I will curse you. I will not curse the other animals, but I will curse all you snakes. From now on, you are going to crawl around on your bellies. You will always be down on the ground in the dirt. 15The woman’s kids will hate you, and so will all their kids, and all the people that will be born later on. People will always be your enemies. And Snake, your kids will hate the woman’s kids, and so will all the snake mob that will be born later on. You snake mob will always be the people’s enemies. They will hit your heads, and you will bite their feet.”#Revelation 12:17
God judged the woman
16Then God said to the woman, “I’m going to give you a lot of trouble. You are going to have a lot of pain whenever you have a baby. It will hurt you a lot. But you will really want to have a husband, and your husband will be your boss.”
God judged the man
17-18Then God said to the man, “I told you not to eat any fruit from one of the trees in the middle of the garden, but you listened to your wife, and you ate that fruit. So I will curse the ground and make it bad for you. It will never be easy for you to get your food from the plants in the ground any more. The ground will have lots of rubbish plants and prickles in it.#Hebrews 6:8 19You will work very hard to get your food, so you will get hot, and you will sweat a lot. And later on, you will die. I made you from the dirt, and after you die, your body will turn back into dirt.”
God hunted Adam and Eve out of Eden
20Adam’s wife was the first woman, and all the people in the world came from her. So Adam gave her the name Eve. That name means somebody that gives life. 21God made some clothes from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
22After that, God said, “These people are like us now. They know what things are good, and what things are bad. We have to stop them, so they will not eat fruit from the other tree in the middle of the garden, the tree that makes people stay alive. If they eat that fruit, they will live for ever.”#Revelation 22:14 23So God hunted them out of the garden. To get food, they had to dig the ground and grow plants. You know, God made that man out of the ground, and after they left the garden, that man had to dig that same ground.
24After God hunted them out of the garden, he made sure that they couldn’t get back. He put some of his angel workers to be guards just outside the east side of the garden in Eden. Their job was to stop anybody from getting near the tree that makes people stay alive. They had long knives that were on fire, and they waved those long knives everywhere, to keep everyone away.
© 2021, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. All rights reserved.