3
The snake tricked the woman
1 God made lots of animals, but the snake was the most sneaky of all the wild animals. One day the snake went up to the woman and said, “Did God really say that you must not eat fruit from any of the trees in this garden? Is that true?”+
2 The woman said, “No, that is not true. We can eat fruit from any of the trees in the garden. 3 But God did say, ‘You must not eat any of the fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and do not even touch the fruit. If you do, you will die.’ ” +
4 The snake said to the woman, “No. That's not right. You will not die. 5 God knows that if you eat fruit from that tree, you will be like God and you will know what is good and what is really bad.”
The man and the woman turned away from God
6 The woman looked at the tree. It looked really nice, and the fruit on that tree looked really good to eat. And she said to herself, “If I eat some of that fruit, I will know and understand everything.” So the woman picked some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some of the fruit to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it too. 7 Straight away the man and the woman could think in a different way. It was like their eyes were opened for the first time and they found out that they had nothing on. They felt shamed, and wanted to cover themselves up, so they picked some big leaves from a tree. Then they put the leaves together to make some clothes for themselves.
The man and the woman tried to hide from God
8 Late in the afternoon, the man and the woman heard the Lord God coming their way, so they got behind some trees and tried to hide from him. 9 But the Lord God called out, “Where are you?” 10 The man said, “I heard you walking in the garden and I was frightened. You see, I had no clothes on, and I was shamed. That is why I tried to hide from you.” 11 God asked the man, “Why are you shamed to have no clothes on? Did you eat some of the fruit that I told you not to eat?” 12 The man answered, “Yes, I did eat the fruit. That woman you gave me. She's the one, she gave it to me.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “Why did you do that?”
The woman said, “That snake tricked me. That is why I ate the fruit.” +
God judged the snake
14 Then the Lord God said, “Snake, you have tricked this woman and so I will put a curse on you. I curse you more than I will ever curse any other animal. From now on you are going to move around on your belly, and everything you eat will have dirt on it. 15 You and the woman will always be enemies. The family that will come from her will always hate you. And snake, the family that comes from you will always hate the woman's family too. You will always be enemies. And I tell you straight, someone from her family will smash your head, but you will bite his foot.” +
God judged the woman
16 Then God said to the woman, “You did the wrong thing and so I am going to give you a lot of trouble and a lot of pain when your babies are born. You will want to have a husband and try to be his boss, but he will be your boss.”
God judged the man
17 Then God said to Adam, “You listened to your wife. Remember, I told you, ‘You must not eat that fruit,’ but you still ate it. Now that you have gone against what I said to you, I am going to put a curse on the ground. And for the rest of your life you will have to work really hard to get your food. 18 When you grow food plants there will always be lots of weeds and prickles growing there too. 19 For the rest of your life you will have to work very hard to get your food, and you will get hot and sweaty. And when you die, someone will bury your body in the ground. You see, I made you from the ground and so your body will turn back into the ground that I made you from.”
God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden
20 Adam's wife was the first woman, and so all the people in the world came from her. That is why Adam named her Eve. That name means that life came from her. 21 Then the Lord God killed some animals and used their skins to make clothes for Adam and his wife.
22 Then the Lord God said, “The man is like us now. He knows what is good and what is bad. We have to stop him from eating any fruit from the other tree in the middle of the garden. If anyone eats fruit from that tree, they will live forever.”+ 23 So the Lord God sent the man out of the garden of Eden so that he had to work the ground that he was made from. 24 God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden and he put some of his angels to block the east side of the garden. Those angels had big knives with flames coming out of them, and those angels waved those knives everywhere to block anybody from getting to the fruit that makes people live forever.
+ 3:1 Revelation 12:9; 20:2 + 3:3 Genesis 2:16-17 + 3:13 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14 + 3:15 Romans 16:20 + 3:22 Revelation 2:7; 22:14