Genesis 3

1The snake was more crafty than any other wild animal the LORD God had made. The snake said to the woman: Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?

2The woman told the snake: We can eat fruit from the trees in the garden.

3But God said we may not eat fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. God said we must not even touch it, or we will die.

4But the snake said to the woman: You will not die.

5God knows what will happen on the day you eat that fruit. Your eyes will be opened. You will be like God, knowing good and evil.

6Then the woman saw that the tree was beautiful. Its fruit looked good to eat. She wanted it because it would make her wise. The woman took some of the fruit and ate it. She gave some to her husband, who was with her. Her husband ate it too.

7Then the eyes of the man and the woman were opened. They knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made clothes for themselves.

8During the cool part of the day, the LORD God was walking in the garden. The man and the woman heard the LORD God. They hid among the trees in the garden.

9The LORD God called Adam and said: Where are you?

10The man said: I heard You walking in the garden, and I was afraid. I was naked, so I hid.

11The LORD God said to the man: Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from the tree I told you not to eat from?

12Adam said: Lord, it was because of the woman You gave me. She gave me some of the fruit, and I ate it.

13Then the LORD God said to the woman: What have you done? She said: The snake tricked me, so I ate the fruit.

14So the LORD God said to the snake: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all farm animals and every wild animal. You must crawl on your belly. You must eat dust all the days of your life.

15I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Your children and her children will be enemies too. Her child will crush your head, and you will strike her child's heel.

16Then the LORD God said to the woman: I will cause you to have much trouble when you are pregnant. When you give birth to children, you will have much pain. You will want your husband very much, but he will rule over you.

17Then the LORD God said to Adam: I told you not to eat the fruit from the tree that gives knowledge of good and evil. But you did not listen to Me. You listened to your wife, and you ate the fruit. Because of this, I will curse the ground. You will work hard all your life for the food the ground produces.

18The ground will grow thorns and weeds for you. You will have to eat the plants that grow wild in the fields.

19You will work very long and hard to get food. Your face will be wet with sweat. You will work hard until the day you die. Then you will become dust again.

20Adam named his wife Eve. Adam gave her this name because Eve would be the mother of everyone who ever lived.

21The LORD God used animal skins to make clothes for Adam and his wife.

22The LORD God said: Look, the man has become like Us, knowing good and evil. Now the man might take the fruit from the tree of life. If the man eats that fruit, the man will live forever.

23So the LORD God sent the man out of the Garden of Eden. The man had to work the ground he was taken from.

24The LORD God put angels called cherubim on the east side of the garden. He also put a flaming sword there to guard the way to the tree of life. The sword flashed around and around.