abdicated his kingship and allowed the serpent to be king of God’s creation. And he also disobeyed the command in 2:15 to work and guard the garden—he despised his priesthood and allowed the serpent to defile what he should have kept pure.8 God’s judgments against Adam and Eve later in Genesis 3 strike exactly at the points where God had demanded obedience. In the curse upon the woman, for example, God states: “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children” (3:16).