The Fall

3 Now the serpente was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?f”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,g 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”h

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.i 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,j knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirablek for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband,l who was with her, and he ate it.m 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked;n so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.o

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walkingp in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hidq from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”r

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraids because I was naked;t so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?u Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?v”

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with mew—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me,x and I ate.”

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursedy are you above all livestock

and all wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly

and you will eat dustz

all the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspringa a and hers;b

he will crushb your head,c

and you will strike his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;

with painful labor you will give birth to children.d

Your desire will be for your husband,

and he will rule over you.e”

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’f

“Cursedg is the groundh because of you;

through painful toili you will eat food from it

all the days of your life.j

18 It will produce thorns and thistlesk for you,

and you will eat the plants of the field.l

19 By the sweat of your browm

you will eat your foodn

until you return to the ground,

since from it you were taken;

for dust you are

and to dust you will return.”o

20 Adamc named his wife Eve,d p because she would become the mother of all the living.

21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.q 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us,r knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of lifes and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Edent to work the groundu from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east sidee of the Garden of Edenv cherubimw and a flaming swordx flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.y