Open English Translation GEN Chapter 3

3 Now the snake was the craftiest of all the animals that Yahweh God had created, and one day he asked the woman, “Did God really command you to not eat fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”[ref]

2 “No,” answered the woman, “we can eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden, 3 except from the tree that is in the centre. He commanded us to not eat that fruit or even touch it, because if we do, we will die!”

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “It’s not definite that you’ll die. 5 Actually, God knows that as soon as you eat fruit from that tree, you’ll understand new things, so that you will know what’s right and what’s wrong just like God does.”

6 The woman saw that the tree’s fruit looked good to eat and that the tree itself was very attractive, plus she wanted to eat the fruit so that it would make her wise. So she picked some of the fruit and ate it and she also gave some of it to her husband who was there with her, and he ate it too. 7 Immediately they both had new understanding and they felt their nakedness. So they sewed some fig leaves together and made skirts for themselves.

8 Late that afternoon, during the cool time of the day, the man and his wife heard Yahweh God’s voice as he walked in the garden, but they hid from him behind some trees in the garden, 9 so Yahweh God called out to the man, “Adam, where are you?”

10 “I heard you walking in the garden,” he replied, “but I was scared because I was naked, so I hid myself.”

11 “Who told you that you’re naked?” Yahweh God asked. “Have you eaten the fruit that I told you not to eat?”

12 “The woman that you put here beside me,” answered the man, “she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.”

13 Then Yahweh God asked the woman, “What did you do?”[ref]

“The snake tricked me, so I ate some of the fruit,” the woman replied.

14 Then Yahweh God said to the snake,

“Because you’ve done this you’ll be cursed more than all the livestock,

and more than every living thing in the fields.

Now you’ll move along on your belly,

and you’ll eat dust all the rest of your life.

15 I’ll put hostility between you and the woman

between your descendants and hers.

He will crush your head

and you’ll strike his heel.”[ref]

16 To the woman God said,

“I’ll sharply increase your pain in childbirth.

You’ll produce children in pain.

Your desire will be for your husband

and he will rule over you.”

17 Then God said to the man,[ref]

“Because you did what your wife told you

and ate from that tree

that I’d told you not to eat from,

then the ground will be cursed because of you.

You’ll have to work hard to get food from it

all the rest of your life.

18 It’ll produce thorns and thistles for you

although you’ll eat the crops of the fields.

19 You’ll eat bread with sweat drops on your nose

until you return to the ground

because you were taken out of the ground.

Yes, you were created from dust,

and you’ll return back to dust.”

20 Then the man named his wife ‘Havvah’ (which means ‘living’) because she would become the mother of all future people. 21 Then Yahweh God made clothes from animal skins for Adam and his wife and he dressed them.

22 Then Yahweh God said, “See, the man has become like one of us, being aware of good and evil. But now, he mustn’t be allowed to reach out his hand and also take fruit from the tree of life and eat it and live forever.”[ref] 23 So Yahweh God expelled them out of the garden in Eden to work the soil from which Adam had been taken.

24 After he expelled them, he placed sentries on the east side of the garden in Eden, as well as a fiery sword that swung around in every direction to guard the path to the tree of life.