Genesis 3

What happens: The serpent, described as crafty/shrewd, engages the woman in dialogue about the forbidden tree. Both humans eat. Their eyes are opened — they know they are naked. YHWH God questions them, pronounces consequences on the serpent, the woman, and the man, makes garments of skin, and expels them from the garden with cherubim guarding the way to the tree of life.

Key themes: The crafty/naked wordplay bridging Chapters 2–3; the serpent's rhetoric; the woman's modification of the command; knowledge of good and evil — promised and delivered, but not as expected; shame, fear, blame as a sequence; consequences vs. curses (only the serpent and the ground are cursed, not the humans); the broken sentence at 3:22 (a sentence that stops mid-thought without completing itself — aposiopesis).

Watch for: The serpent uses only "Elohim," never "YHWH Elohim"; the man was "with her" during the dialogue (3:6); "dying you shall die" (2:17) vs. "you will not dying die" (3:4) — same grammatical construction, negated; the text's own words at 3:22 echo the serpent's claim at 3:5 ("knowing good and evil"), while the narrative context shows consequences the serpent did not mention; "dust you are" uses present-tense language that can be read as describing an existing condition rather than imposing a new one — whether mortality is intrinsic or newly imposed is debated.

Connection: The expulsion from the garden leads directly into Cain and Abel (Chapter 4). The curse on the ground (3:17) echoes through 5:29 (Noah's naming) and 8:21 (YHWH's post-flood resolution).

¹And the serpent was more crafty than every living thing of the field which YHWH Elohim had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from every tree of the garden'?" ²And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, ³but from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God said, 'You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.'" ⁴And the serpent said to the woman, "Not dying you shall die. ⁵For God knows that in the day of your eating from it your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like God/gods, knowing good and evil."

⁶And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make wise; and she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her man with her, and he ate. ⁷And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves and made for themselves loin-coverings.

⁸And they heard the voice of YHWH Elohim walking in the garden at the wind of the day, and the human and his woman hid themselves from the face of YHWH Elohim in the midst of the tree of the garden. ⁹And YHWH Elohim called to the human, and said to him, "Where are you?" ¹⁰And he said, "Your voice I heard in the garden, and I was afraid, for I am naked, and I hid myself." ¹¹And he said, "Who told you that you are naked? From the tree which I commanded you not to eat from it, have you eaten?" ¹²And the human said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave to me from the tree, and I ate." ¹³And YHWH Elohim said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

¹⁴And YHWH Elohim said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you from every livestock and from every living thing of the field; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. ¹⁵And enmity I will set between you and between the woman, and between your seed and between her seed; he shall bruise/strike you on the head, and you shall bruise/strike him on the heel."

¹⁶To the woman he said, "Multiplying I will multiply your toil and your pregnancy; in toil you shall bear sons. And toward your man shall be your desire/turning, and he shall rule over you."

¹⁷And to the human he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your woman, and have eaten from the tree which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat from it all the days of your life. ¹⁸And thorn and thistle it shall bring forth to you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. ¹⁹In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, until your returning to the ground, for from it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return."

²⁰And the human called the name of his woman Chava (Eve), for she was mother of all the living. ²¹And YHWH Elohim made for the human and for his woman garments of skin, and he clothed them.

²²And YHWH Elohim said, "See, the human has become like one of us to know good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of the life, and eat, and live forever…" ²³And YHWH Elohim sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴And he drove out the human; and he caused to dwell at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim, and the flame of the sword turning, to guard the way of the tree of the life.