Genesis 3

1The serpent was more cunning than any wild animal that Yahweh God had made. He asked the woman, “Is it true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden.

3But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘Do not eat from it, and do not touch it, or else you will die.’”

4The serpent said to the woman, “You will not die—not at all!

5In fact, God knows that on the very day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6The woman saw that the tree was good to eat from, that it was lovely to look at, and that the tree was desirable for gaining insight. So she took some of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

7Then both of them had their eyes opened, and they realized they were naked, so they stitched fig leaves together and made coverings for their waists.

8They heard the sound of Yahweh God as he was walking about in the garden at the time of the day’s breeze, and the man and his wife hid among the trees of the garden, away from the presence of Yahweh God.

9But Yahweh God called out to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”

10He answered, “I heard the sound you made in the garden, and I was frightened because I was naked, so I hid.”

11He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the very tree I commanded you not to eat from?”

12The man said, “The woman you gave me as my companion—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

13Then Yahweh God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?” She answered, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”

14Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Since you have done this, you are cursed more than all the livestock and more than every wild animal! You will crawl on your belly, and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

15I will set hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. He will wound your head, and you will wound his heel.”

16To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pain and your pregnancies; in pain you will give birth to children. Your longing will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

17To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree that I commanded you about, saying, ‘Do not eat from it,’ the ground is cursed on your account; through painful labor you will eat from it all the days of your life.

18It will bring up thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants that grow in the field.

19With sweat on your face you will eat bread until you go back to the ground, since you were taken from it. For dust is what you are, and to dust you will go back.”

20The man gave his wife the name Eve, since she became the mother of everyone living.

21Yahweh God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and he dressed them.

22Then Yahweh God said, “Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. What if he now stretches out his hand, takes from the tree of life as well, eats, and lives forever?”

23So Yahweh God sent him away from the garden of Eden to till the ground he had been taken from.

24After driving the man out, he posted the cherubim east of the garden of Eden, along with a flaming sword that flashed back and forth, to guard the way to the tree of life.