Genesis 3

The snake tricked the woman

1God made lots of animals, but the snake was the animal that had the most brains. He was really smart. One day, the snake went to the woman and said to her, “Did God say, ‘You can’t eat fruit from any of the trees in the garden’? Is that true?”#Revelation 12:9; 20:2

2The woman said, “No, that’s not true. We can eat fruit from those trees there in the garden. 3God said that there is only one tree that we can’t eat from. We can’t eat any fruit that comes from one of the trees that is in the middle of the garden. God will not even let us touch that tree. He said that if we eat fruit from that tree, we will die.”

4The snake said to the woman, “You will not die. 5God knows what will happen if you eat fruit from that tree. He knows that if you eat fruit from that tree, you will know more things, like God himself. You will know if the things you do are good, or if they are bad.”

The man and the woman did the wrong thing

6The woman looked at that tree. It was pretty, and the fruit on that tree looked really good to eat, and she reckoned that if she eats some of that fruit, she will think properly. So the woman got some of that fruit, and she ate it, and she gave some of it to her husband, and he ate that fruit, too. 7Straight away, the man and the woman knew more things. They knew that they were naked, and they felt shame. They wanted to make clothes to cover up their naked bodies, so they picked some big leaves from a tree and sewed the leaves together to make some clothes.

The man and the woman tried to hide from God

8Later on, in the cool part of the day, the man and the woman heard God walking in the garden. So they got behind some trees in the garden to hide from God.

9God called out to the man, “Where are you?”

10The man said, “I heard you walking in the garden and I was frightened, because I’m naked. So I hid from you.”

11God asked the man, “How do you know that you are naked? Did you eat some of that fruit from the tree that I told you not to eat from?”

12The man said, “Yes, but it was the woman that you put here with me, she gave me fruit from that tree, so I ate it.”

13Then God said to the woman, “Why did you do that bad thing?”#2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14

The woman said, “That snake tricked me. That’s the reason why I ate that fruit.”

God judged the snake

14Then God said, “Snake, you did the wrong thing, so I will curse you. I will not curse the other animals, but I will curse all you snakes. From now on, you are going to crawl around on your bellies. You will always be down on the ground in the dirt. 15The woman’s kids will hate you, and so will all their kids, and all the people that will be born later on. People will always be your enemies. And Snake, your kids will hate the woman’s kids, and so will all the snake mob that will be born later on. You snake mob will always be the people’s enemies. They will hit your heads, and you will bite their feet.”#Revelation 12:17

God judged the woman

16Then God said to the woman, “I’m going to give you a lot of trouble. You are going to have a lot of pain whenever you have a baby. It will hurt you a lot. But you will really want to have a husband, and your husband will be your boss.”

God judged the man

17-18Then God said to the man, “I told you not to eat any fruit from one of the trees in the middle of the garden, but you listened to your wife, and you ate that fruit. So I will curse the ground and make it bad for you. It will never be easy for you to get your food from the plants in the ground any more. The ground will have lots of rubbish plants and prickles in it.#Hebrews 6:8 19You will work very hard to get your food, so you will get hot, and you will sweat a lot. And later on, you will die. I made you from the dirt, and after you die, your body will turn back into dirt.”

God hunted Adam and Eve out of Eden

20Adam’s wife was the first woman, and all the people in the world came from her. So Adam gave her the name Eve. That name means somebody that gives life. 21God made some clothes from animal skins for Adam and his wife.

22After that, God said, “These people are like us now. They know what things are good, and what things are bad. We have to stop them, so they will not eat fruit from the other tree in the middle of the garden, the tree that makes people stay alive. If they eat that fruit, they will live for ever.”#Revelation 22:14 23So God hunted them out of the garden. To get food, they had to dig the ground and grow plants. You know, God made that man out of the ground, and after they left the garden, that man had to dig that same ground.

24After God hunted them out of the garden, he made sure that they couldn’t get back. He put some of his angel workers to be guards just outside the east side of the garden in Eden. Their job was to stop anybody from getting near the tree that makes people stay alive. They had long knives that were on fire, and they waved those long knives everywhere, to keep everyone away.

Genesis 3

The Serpent’s Deception

(Romans 5:12–21)

1Now the serpent #3:1 Hebrew nachash, translated in this chapter as serpent, is translated in most cases as snake. was more crafty than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he 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 the fruit of the trees of the garden, 3but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’”

4“You will not surely die,” the serpent told her. 5“For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

7And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.

God Arraigns Adam and Eve

8Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the breeze #3:8 Or at the breezy (time); Hebrew unto the Ruach of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

9But the Lord God called out to the man, “Where are you?”

10“I heard Your voice in the garden,” he replied, “and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”

11“Who told you that you were naked?” asked the Lord God. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

12And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

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

“The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.”

The Fate of the Serpent

14So the Lord God said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this,

cursed are you above all livestock

and every beast of the field!

On your belly will you go,

and dust you will eat,

all the days of your life.

15And I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your seed and her seed.

He will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.#3:15 Or He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel. The same Hebrew root for crush, bruise, or strike appears twice in this verse.”

The Punishment of Mankind

16To the woman He said:

“I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth;

in pain you will bring forth children.

Your desire will be for your husband,#3:16 Or You will desire to control your husband

and he will rule over you.”

17And to Adam He said:

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

and have eaten from the tree

of which I commanded you not to eat,

cursed is the ground because of you;

through toil you will eat of it

all the days of your life.

18Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you,

and you will eat the plants of the field.

19By the sweat of your brow

you will eat your bread,

until you return to the ground—

because out of it were you taken.

For dust you are,

and to dust you shall return.”

20And Adam named his wife Eve,#3:20 Eve sounds like the Hebrew for giving life or living. because she would be the mother of all the living.

The Expulsion from Paradise

21And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

22Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”

23Therefore the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.

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Genesis 3

Genesis 3