CHAPTER 3
But the serpent was feller or more sly than all living beasts of [the] earth, which the Lord God had made. The which serpent said to the woman, Why commanded God to you, that ye should not eat of each tree of paradise?
To whom the woman answered, We eat of the fruit of trees that be in paradise;
soothly God commanded to us, that we should not eat of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of paradise, and that we should not touch it, lest peradventure we die.
Forsooth the serpent said to the woman, Ye shall not die by death;
for why God knoweth that in what-ever day ye shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.
Therefore the woman saw that the tree was good, and sweet to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightable in beholding; and she took of the fruit thereof, and ate, and gave to her husband, and he ate.
And the eyes of both were opened; and when they knew that they were naked, they sewed [together] the leaves of a fig tree, and made breeches to themselves.
And when they heard the voice of the Lord God going in paradise at the wind after midday, Adam and his wife hid them from the face of the Lord God in [the] midst of the trees of paradise.
And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him, Where art thou?
10 And Adam said, I heard thy voice in paradise, and I dreaded, for I was naked, and I hid me.
11 To whom the Lord said, Who showed to thee that thou were naked, no but for thou hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded to thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And Adam said, The woman which thou gavest for fellowship to me, gave me of the tree, and I ate.
13 And the Lord said to the woman, Why didest thou this thing? The which answered, The serpent deceived me, and I ate.
14 And the Lord God said to the serpent, For thou didest this, thou shalt be cursed among all [the] living things, and unreasonable beasts of [the] earth; thou shalt go on thy breast, and thou shalt eat earth in all the days of thy life.
15 I shall set [or put] enmities betwixt thee and the woman, and betwixt thy seed and her seed; she shall break thine head, and thou shalt set ambushes to her heel.
16 Also God said to the woman, I shall multiply thy wretchednesses and thy conceivings; in sorrow thou shalt bear thy children; and thou shalt be under power of thine husband, and he shall be lord of thee.
17 Soothly God said to Adam, For thou heardest the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded to thee that thou shouldest not eat, the earth shall be cursed in thy work, that is, for thy sin; in travails thou shalt eat thereof in all the days of thy life;
18 it shall bring forth thorns and briars to thee, and thou shalt eat herbs of the earth;
19 in [the] sweat of thy cheer, [or face], thou shalt eat thy bread, till thou turn again into the earth of which thou art taken; for thou art dust, and thou shalt turn again into dust.
20 And Adam called the name of his wife Eve, for she was the mother of all men living.
21 And the Lord God made coats of skins to Adam and Eve his wife, and clothed them;
22 and said, Lo! Adam is made as one of us, and knoweth good and evil; now therefore see ye, lest peradventure he put [out] his hand, and take [also] of the tree of life, and eat, and live without end.
23 And the Lord God sent him out of paradise of liking or the garden of Eden, that he should work the earth, of which he was taken.
24 And God casted out Adam, and setted before paradise of liking cherubim, that is, gave it unto the keeping of angels, and a sword of flame turning about to keep charge of the way of the tree of life.