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 not die,” the serpent said to the woman. # Jn 8:44 5“In fact, God knows that when # Lit on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, # Or gods, or divine beings knowing good and evil.” 6Then the 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 loincloths 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, # Lit at the wind of the day and they hid themselves 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 # 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? ”
12Then the 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 is this you have done? ”
And the woman said, “It was the serpent. He deceived me, and I ate.” # Rm 7:11; 2Co 11:3; 1Tm 2:14
14Then 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 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 in anguish. # 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 Adam, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice 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 # 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 # 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.”
20Adam named his wife Eve # Lit Living, or Life because she was the mother of all the living. 21The Lord God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.
22The Lord God said, “Since 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 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
© 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Genesis 3
3
1The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
2-3The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’”
4-5The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”
6When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
7Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.
8When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God.
9 God called to the Man: “Where are you?”
10He said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid.”
11 God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?”
12The Man said, “The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it.”
God said to the Woman, “What is this that you’ve done?”
13“The serpent seduced me,” she said, “and I ate.”
14-15 God told the serpent:
“Because you’ve done this, you’re cursed,
cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals,
Cursed to slink on your belly
and eat dirt all your life.
I’m declaring war between you and the Woman,
between your offspring and hers.
He’ll wound your head,
you’ll wound his heel.”
16He told the Woman:
“I’ll multiply your pains in childbirth;
you’ll give birth to your babies in pain.
You’ll want to please your husband,
but he’ll lord it over you.”
17-19He told the Man:
“Because you listened to your wife
and ate from the tree
That I commanded you not to eat from,
‘Don’t eat from this tree,’
The very ground is cursed because of you;
getting food from the ground
Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife;
you’ll be working in pain all your life long.
The ground will sprout thorns and weeds,
you’ll get your food the hard way,
Planting and tilling and harvesting,
sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk,
Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried;
you started out as dirt, you’ll end up dirt.”
20The Man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.
21 God made leather clothing for Adam and his wife and dressed them.
22 God said, “The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil. What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never—this cannot happen!”
23-24So God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they’d been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.