Chapter 3

¹ Now the serpent was more shrewd than any beast of the field that The Sovereign, The Self-Existent, The All-Powerful, Almighty One had fashioned. And he said to the woman, “Did The All-Powerful, Almighty One really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;

³ but from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, The All-Powerful, Almighty One has said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ The serpent said to the woman, “Dying, you will absolutely not die!

⁵ For The All-Powerful, Almighty One knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like The All-Powerful, Almighty One, knowing what is good and what is harmful.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was beautiful to look at, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her man with her, and he ate.

⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves waist-coverings.

⁸ And they heard the voice of The Sovereign, The Self-Existent, The All-Powerful, Almighty One moving in the garden in the cool breeze of the day, and the man and his woman hid themselves from the presence of The Sovereign, The Self-Existent, The All-Powerful, Almighty One among the trees of the garden.

⁹ Then The Sovereign, The Self-Existent, The All-Powerful, Almighty One called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ And the man said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I am naked; so I hid myself.”

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

¹² The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

¹³ Then The Sovereign, The Self-Existent, The All-Powerful, Almighty One said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴ And The Sovereign, The Self-Existent, The All-Powerful, Almighty One said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this,

you are cursed above all livestock

and above every beast of the field;

upon your belly you shall crawl,

and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

¹⁵ And I will put hostility between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall crush your head,

and you shall crush his heel.”

¹⁶ To the woman He said:

“I will greatly multiply your painful strain in childbearing;

in pain you shall bring forth children,

yet your desire shall be for your man,

and he shall rule over you.”

¹¹ Then to the man He said, “Because you listened to the voice of your woman and ate from the tree from which I commanded you, saying, ‘You must not eat from it,’

the soil is cursed because of you;

in painful strain you shall eat from it

all the days of your life.

¹⁸ Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,

and you shall eat the plants of the field.

¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread,

until you return to the ground,

for out of it you were taken;

for dust you are,

and to dust you shall return.”

²⁰ And the man called his woman’s name Eve (Life-Giver), because she was the mother of all living.

²¹ Then The Sovereign, The Self-Existent, The All-Powerful, Almighty One made garments of skin for the man and for his woman, and He clothed them.

²² Then The Sovereign, The Self-Existent, The All-Powerful, Almighty One said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing what is good and what is harmful; and now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—”

²³ therefore The Sovereign, The Self-Existent, The All-Powerful, Almighty One sent him out from the garden of Eden to cultivate the soil from which he had been taken.

²⁴ So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way, to guard the path to the tree of life.