3
The First Sin and the First Promise
1 The snake was more clever than all the wild animals the Lord God had made. He asked the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must never eat the fruit of any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman answered the snake, “We’re allowed to eat the fruit from any tree in the garden 3 except the tree in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘You must never eat it or touch it. If you do, you will die!’ ”
4 “You certainly won’t die!” the snake told the woman. 5 “God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened. You’ll be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 The woman saw that the tree had fruit that was good to eat, nice to look at, and desirable for making someone wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
7 Then their eyes were opened, and they both realized that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made clothes for themselves.
8 In the cool of the evening, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking around in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. 9 The Lord God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
11 God asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man answered, “That woman, the one you gave me, gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The snake deceived me, and I ate,” the woman answered.
14 So the Lord God said to the snake, “Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all the wild or domestic animals.
You will crawl on your belly.
You will be the lowest of animals as long as you live.
15 I will make you and the woman hostile toward each other.
I will make your descendants
and her descendant hostile toward each other.
He will crush your head,
and you will bruise his heel.”
16 He said to the woman,
“I will increase your pain and your labor
when you give birth to children.
Yet, you will long for your husband,
and he will rule you.”
17 Then he said to the man, “You listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree, although I commanded you, ‘You must never eat its fruit.’
The ground is cursed because of you.
Through hard work you will eat ⌞food that comes⌟ from it
every day of your life.
18 The ground will grow thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat wild plants.
19 By the sweat of your brow, you will produce food to eat
until you return to the ground,
because you were taken from it.
You are dust, and you will return to dust.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve [Life] because she became the mother of every living person.
21 The Lord God made clothes from animal skins for the man and his wife and dressed them.
22 Then the Lord God said, “The man has become like one of us, since he knows good and evil. He must not reach out and take the fruit from the tree of life and eat. Then he would live forever.” 23 So the Lord God sent the man out of the Garden of Eden to farm the ground from which the man had been formed. 24 After he sent the man out, God placed angels *Or “cherubim.” and a flaming sword that turned in all directions east of the Garden of Eden. He placed them there to guard the way to the tree of life.