Genesis 3

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

The Beginning of Sin

3 <1> The snake was the most clever of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. The snake spoke to the woman and said, "Woman, did God really tell you that you must not eat from any tree in the garden?"

<2> The woman answered the snake, "No, we can eat fruit from the trees in the garden. <3> But there is one tree we must not eat from. God told us, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch that tree, or you will die.'"

<4> But the snake said to the woman, "You will not die. <5> God knows that if you eat the fruit from that tree you will learn about good and evil, and then you will be like God!"

<6> The woman saw that the tree was beautiful and that the fruit was good to eat, and she desired the fruit because it would make her wise. So she took some of the fruit from the tree and ate it. Her husband was there with her, so she gave him some of the fruit, and he ate it.

<7> Then it was as if their eyes opened, and they saw things differently. They saw that they were naked. So they got some fig leaves, sewed them together, and wore them for clothes.

<8> During the cool part of the day, the Lord God was walking in the garden. The man and the woman heard him, and they hid among the trees in the garden. <9> The Lord God called to the man and said, "Where are you?"

<10> The man said, "I heard you walking in the garden, and I was afraid. I was naked, so I hid."

<11> The Lord God said to the man, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from that special tree? I told you not to eat from that tree!"

<12> The man said, "The woman you put here with me gave me fruit from that tree. So I ate it."

<13> Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What have you done?"

She said, "The snake tricked me, so I ate the fruit."

<14> So the Lord God said to the snake,

"You did this very bad thing,

so bad things will happen to you.

It will be worse for you

than for any other animal.

You must crawl on your belly

and eat dust all the days of your life.

<15> I will make you and the woman

enemies to each other.

Your children and her children

will be enemies.

You will bite her child's foot,

but he will crush your head."

<16> Then the Lord God said to the woman,

"I will cause you to have much trouble

when you are pregnant.

And when you give birth to children,

you will have much pain.

You will want your husband very much,

but he will rule over you."[19]

<17> Then the Lord God said to the man,

"I commanded you

not to eat from that tree.

But you listened to your wife,

and you ate from that tree.

So I will curse[20] the ground

because of you.

You will have to work very hard

all the days of your life for the food the ground gives.

<18> The ground will grow thorns and weeds for you.

And you will have to eat the plants

that grow wild in the fields.[21]

<19> You will work hard for your food,

until your face is covered with sweat.

You will work hard until the day you die,

and then you will become dust again.

I used dust to make you,

and when you die, you will become dust again."

<20> Adam[22] named his wife Eve.[23] Adam gave her this name because Eve would be the mother of everyone who ever lived.

<21> The Lord God used animal skins and made some clothes for the man and his wife. Then he put the clothes on them.

<22> The Lord God said, "Look, the man has become like us-he knows about good and evil. And now the man might take the fruit from the tree of life. If the man eats that fruit, he will live forever."

<23> So the Lord God forced the man out of the Garden of Eden to work the ground he was made from. <24> The Lord God forced the man to leave the garden, and then he put Cherub angels[24] at the entrance to the garden to protect it. He also put a sword of fire there. This sword flashed around and around, guarding the way to the tree of life.