Genesis Chapter 3
Genesis 2 is the pivotal plot chapter of the Bible. Man was created to live and work with God, turning the entire world in a perfect garden. Adam and Eve are tempted by the serpent, and disobey, deciding that they, and not God can determine what is right and what is wrong. Consequently, they are no long able to live within the sacred space of God’s presence and are exiled from the garden. The rest of the Bible is God’s plan to return mankind to his presence and an Eden-like state.
Annotated Commentary with Links
| 1Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the filed which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?” | The Hebrew word for serpent is “nachash,” which means snake, but by substituting other vowels to the root consonants, a common form of Hebrew word play, it may also mean shining like bronze or diviner. The Hebrew word for “subtle” is “arum,” which means shrew, craft, or sly. The serpent begins with his first of three tactics, questioning God’s word. |
| 2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit form the trees of the garden, | |
| 3but not the fruit of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it. You shall not touch it, lest you die.” | God did not tell the woman should could not touch the fruit. She is now adding to God’s word. |
| 4The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely die, | The serpent now deploys his second tactic. He accuses God of lying, “you won’t surely die.” |
| 5for 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.” | For his third and final tactic, the serpent tells the woman God wants to keep her from achieving her full potential, “you will be like God.” |
| 6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it too. | |
| 7Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves. | |
| 8They heard Yahweh God’s voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden. | |
| 9Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” | |
| 10The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. | |
| 11God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” | |
| 12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to men, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” | |
| 13Yahweh said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” | |
| 14Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. You shall go on your belly and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. | |
| 15I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.” | |
| 16To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” | |
| 17To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life. | |
| 18It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field. | |
| 19By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” | |
| 20The man called his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all the living. | |
| 21Yahweh God made coats of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them. | |
| 22Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever…” | |
| 23Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. | |
| 24So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. | Cherubim (the plural of cherub) are supernatural beings that are attendants to God’s throne. |
