GenesisChapter 3

Tap any verse to comment or suggest a better wording.

¹The serpent was more clever and sly than any wild animal the LORD God had made. The serpent said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" ²The woman answered the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. ³But God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch it, or you will die.'" ⁴"You will not surely die," the serpent told the woman. ⁵"For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened. You will be like God, knowing good and evil." ⁶The woman saw that the tree's fruit was good for food. It was nice to look at. And it seemed good for making a person 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 too. ⁷Then the eyes of both of them were opened. They knew they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. ⁸Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden. It was the cool, breezy time of the day. They hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" ¹⁰The man answered, "I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid." ¹¹The LORD God asked, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?" ¹²The man answered, "The woman you gave me is the one. She gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it." ¹³Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What have you done?" The woman answered, "The serpent tricked me, and I ate." ¹⁴So the LORD God said to the serpent,
"Because you did this,
you are cursed more than all the farm animals
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly.
You will eat dust
all the days of your life. ¹⁵I will make you and the woman enemies.
Your seed and her seed will be enemies.
He will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."a ¹⁶God said to the woman,
"I will greatly increase your pain when you have children.
You will be in pain when you give birth.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you." ¹⁷And God said to Adam,
"Because you listened to your wife
and ate from the tree
that I commanded you not to eat from,
the ground is cursed because of you.
You will have to work hard to get food from it
all the days of your life. ¹⁸It will grow thorns and thistles for you.
And you will eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹You will sweat to get your bread
until you go back to the ground,
because you were taken out of it.
For you are dust,
and you will go back to dust." ²⁰Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live.b ²¹The LORD God made clothes out of animal skins for Adam and his wife. Then he dressed them. ²²Then the LORD God said, "Look, the man has become like one of us. He knows good and evil. And now he might reach out his hand and take from the tree of life too. He might eat and live forever..." ²³So the LORD God sent him out of the Garden of Eden. He was to work the ground he had been taken from. ²⁴God drove the man out. On the east side of the Garden of Eden he placed cherubim. He also put a flaming sword there that flashed back and forth. They guarded the way to the tree of life.