The snake
1God made a lot of wild animals and the snake was the cleverest and most cunning of all the animals. The snake asked the woman: ‘Did God say that you may not eat any fruit from all the trees in the garden?’
2The woman said: ‘We may eat fruit from any tree in the garden 3but God said that we may not eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. He said we may not eat fruit from that tree and we may not touch it. If we touch it, we will die.’
4Then the snake said to the woman: ‘No, you will not die.
5God knows that when you eat fruit from this tree, you will be like Him and you will know what is good and what is bad.’
The man and woman listen to the snake
6The woman looked at the fruit and she saw that it looked good to eat and she wanted to eat it. She wanted to become clever and she took some of the fruit and she started eating it. She gave some of the fruit to her husband and he also ate it. 7Then they started to understand everything and they saw that they were naked. They took leaves from fig trees and they sewed the leaves together to make clothes to put over their bodies.
The Lord calls the man and woman to come to Him
8That night when the wind started blowing, the man and the woman heard the Lord God walking in the garden. They did not want the Lord God to see them, so they hid behind the trees.
9The Lord God called the man and He asked: ‘Where are you?’
10The man said: ‘Lord, I heard you walking in the garden and I was afraid because I am naked. That is why I hid from You.
11The Lord asked him: ‘How did you know that you are naked? Did you eat of the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that I said you may not eat?’’
12The man said: ‘Lord, it was because of the woman You gave me. She gave me some of the fruit and I ate it.’
13The Lord God asked the woman: ‘What have you done?’ The woman said: ‘It was the snake. He lied to me. He told me that I would not die if I ate the fruit. So I ate it.’
The Lord punishes the snake and the people
14The Lord God said to the snake:
‘You did a bad thing.
I curse you because you did it.
I will not curse the farm animals
or the wild animals.
I am cursing only you.
You will crawl on the ground
and you will eat dust for as long as you live.
15You will hate the woman
and she will hate you.
Her children and your children
will always be enemies.
Her children will try to kill your children
and your children will always bite her children.’
16And the Lord God said to the woman:
‘You will suffer when your children are born.
You will have a lot of pain.
You will always want to be with your husband,
but he will be your master.’
17Then the Lord said to the man: ‘I told you not to eat the fruit from the tree that will make you understand what is good and what is bad. But you did not listen to Me. You listened to your wife and you ate the fruit. Because you did not listen to Me,
‘I will curse the ground where you have to work.
You will have to work very hard
all of your life to get enough food.
18Thorn-bushes and weeds will grow
in the ground and you will eat wild plants
that grow in the field.
19You will work very long and hard to get food,
and your face will be wet and full of sweat.
You will work hard until the day you die,
and when you die,
you will become dust again.’
20Adam gave his wife a name and named her Eve, because she was the mother of all the people who live.
21The Lord God made clothes for Adam and Eve to wear. He made them from animal skins.
The Lord sends the people out of the garden
22The Lord God said: ‘Now the people know what is right and what is wrong, just as We do. They must not eat the fruit from the tree_of_life. If they eat the fruit from the tree_of_life, they will never die. They will live forever.’
23So the Lord God sent the man and the woman out of the Garden of Eden. Adam had to work hard in the ground from which he had come. 24The Lord God said that the man and his wife had to leave the garden and go away. Then He put cherub-angels at the gate of the garden and He told them to guard the gate. They had swords of fire and they guarded the tree_of_life.
