The Fall
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the Lord God had made. The serpent asked the
woman, "Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?" The woman answered the
serpent: "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of
the garden that God said, 'You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the
woman: "You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be
opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad." The woman saw that the tree was
good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it;
and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were
opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for
themselves.
When they heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the
man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. The Lord God then called
to the man and asked him, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid,
because I was naked, so I hid myself." Then he asked, "Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten,
then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!" The man replied, "The woman whom you put here
with me - she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it." The Lord God then asked the woman, "Why did you do
such a thing?" The woman answered, "The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it."
Then the Lord God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this,
you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures;
On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your
life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel."
To the woman he said:
"I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring
forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be
your master."
To the man he said: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to
eat,
"Cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the
days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat
of the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to
eat, Until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; For you
are dirt, and to dirt you shall return."
The man called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living. For the man and his wife the
Lord God made leather garments, with which he clothed them. Then the Lord God said: "See! The man has
become like one of us, knowing what is good and what is bad! Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his
hand to take fruit from the tree of life also, and thus eat of it and live forever." The Lord God therefore banished
him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken. When he expelled the man, he
settled him east of the garden of Eden; and he stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword, to guard
the way to the tree of life.
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