The Beginning of Sin

3 Now the ·snake [serpent] was the most ·clever [shrewd; cunning; crafty] of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day the snake said to the woman, “Did God really say that you must not eat fruit from any tree in the garden?”

² The woman answered the snake [3:1], “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. ³ But God told us, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden [^Cthe tree of the knowledge of good and evil]. You must not even touch it [^CEve was adding to the divine command], or you will die.’ ”

⁴ But the snake [3:1] said to the woman, “You will [^Lmost certainly] not die. ⁵ [^LFor] God knows that if you eat ·the fruit from that tree [^Lfrom it], [^Lyour eyes will be opened and] you will ·learn about [experience; ^Lknow about] good and evil and you will be like God!”

⁶ The woman saw that the tree was ·beautiful [^Lpleasing to the eyes], that its fruit was good ·to eat [^Lfor food], and that it would make her wise. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of the fruit to her husband who was with her [^Capparently he was present but silent while the woman spoke to the snake], and he ate it.

⁷ Then, ·it was as if their eyes [^Lthe eyes of both of them] were opened. They ·realized [knew] they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made ·something to cover [^Lloincloths for] themselves [Rom. 5:12–21].

⁸ Then they heard the [^Lsound of the] Lord God walking in the garden during the cool part of the day, and the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ The man answered, “I heard ·you walking in the garden [^Lyour voice/sound], and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

¹¹ ·God [^LHe] asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”

¹² The man said, “You gave this woman to me and she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “·How could you have done such a thing [What is this you have done]?”

She answered, “The snake ·tricked [deceived; 1 Tim. 2:14] me, so I ate the fruit.”

¹⁴ The Lord God said to the ·snake [serpent],

¹⁶ Then God said to the woman,

¹⁷ Then God said to ·the man [or Adam; 1:27], “You listened to what your wife said, and you ate fruit from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat.

²⁰ The man named his wife Eve [^Cthe name derives from an early form of the verb “to live”], because she was the mother of all the living.

²¹ The Lord God made clothes from animal skins for ·the man [or Adam; 1:27] and his wife and dressed them. ²² Then the Lord God said, “Humans have become like one of us [^Creferring to the supernatural heavenly beings, God and the angels]; they know good and evil. We must keep them from [^Lputting forth their hand and taking and] eating some of the fruit from the tree of life, or they will live forever.” ²³ So the Lord God ·forced [expelled] Adam out of the garden of Eden to ·work [till; or care for; 2:5] the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ After God ·forced [drove] humans out of the garden, he placed ·angels [^Lcherubim; ^Cparticularly powerful spiritual beings] and a sword of fire that flashed around in every direction on its eastern border. ·This kept people from getting […to guard the way] to the tree of life.