The Temptation and the Fall
1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’? ” u
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” v
4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. w 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. x 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Sin’s Consequences
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. y 9 So the LORD God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you? ”
10 And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
11 Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? ”
12 The man replied, z “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
13 So the LORD God asked the woman, “What is this you have done? ”
And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” a
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life. b
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel. c
16 He said to the woman:
I will intensify your labor pains;
you will bear children with painful effort. d
Your desire e will be for your husband,
yet he will rule over you.
17 And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:
The ground is cursed because of you. f
You will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field. g
19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground, h
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.”
20 The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The LORD God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.
22 The LORD God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” i 23 So the LORD God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life. j
C. The fall (3:1–24). 3:1–7. There are only four chapters in the Bible where Satan is not implicitly present in the world, the first two and the last two. The Bible begins and ends with him out of existence. But between Gn 3 and Rv 20 he is a factor to be reckoned with. The Hebrew word for “serpent” (3:1) may be connected either with an adjective/noun meaning “bronze” (suggesting something that is shiny) or with a verb meaning “to practice divination.” Two things are said about the serpent. First, a word about his character—he is “cunning.” This term translates a neutral word that in the OT may describe either a commendable (a “sensible” or “shrewd” person in Pr 12:16, 23) or a reprehensible (the “crafty” in Jb 5:12 and Jb 15:5) trait. Second, there is a word about the serpent’s origin—he was made by God. This point is stressed to make it plain that the serpent is not a divine being, not a coequal with God.
3:8–13. God does not track down this wayward couple. He simply walks in the garden in the cool of the day. Hearing his sound, they hide from him (3:8). This is as foolish as Jonah, who thinks he can actually run from the presence of the Lord (Jnh 1:3). Neither trees nor distance can put one out of the reach of the “Hound of Heaven.” You can run, but you cannot hide.
3:14–15. The consequences of sin are detailed in 3:14–19. Only the serpent is cursed (3:14). God does not curse those he created in his image. Phrases like “move on your belly” and “eat dust” may be understood as metaphorical expressions denoting the serpent’s submission. (Compare the statement made of Israel’s messianic king in Ps 72:9, “His enemies lick the dust.”) He is now himself a servant. True, snakes do “move on their belly” as a means of locomotion (possibly one reason why later biblical law prohibits the consumption of marine life that crawls on the ocean’s bottom; Lv 11:10; Dt 14:10), but they do not eat dust. Wherever God curses, it is in response to somebody’s behavior. Wherever God blesses, it is normally an act flowing out of his gracious will. For every time the Bible speaks of God cursing, it speaks multiple times of God blessing.
3:16–19. God speaks to Eve about her role as mother and as wife (3:16). Here are the two points where, in biblical thought, a woman experiences her highest fulfillment. And at these two points there will be pain and servitude. It may well be that we should read these words in verses 16–19 not as prescriptions but as descriptions by God himself of what it means to be separated from him. Note that in chapter 1 God created male and female to rule jointly (1:28). Now in chapter 3 male “rules” female (same Hebrew verb; 3:16). The word for “desire” in verse 16 is used again in 4:7 (sin’s desire to have Cain). Is Eve’s desire for Adam normal desire, or is it a desire for domination as in 4:7? Given the fact that later this woman’s first son murders her second son, maybe the pain is not the physical pain of birthing but the pain she will experience in seeing the violence in her family.
3:20–21. It is interesting that on the heels of this divine word Adam names his wife “Eve,” which is connected with the word for “life, living” (3:20). It is a name of dignity and reflects the eventual joy of motherhood she will experience. Here is hope in the midst of judgment.
3:22–24. The Lord banishes Adam and Eve from Eden (not because of what they have done, but because of what they might do if allowed to remain in the garden) and restricts reentry to Eden via cherubim and a flaming sword (3:23–24). Adam has indeed become “like one of us” (3:22), but not in the sense the serpent said he would. Anytime people believe they can decide for themselves what is right and wrong, they have usurped the divine prerogative.