Two Weeks on the Old Testament
Reading #2: Genesis 3- The origin of sin
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals
the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really
say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the
trees in the garden,
3 but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is
in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you
will die.'"
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the
woman.
5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food
and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom,
she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who
was with her, and he ate it.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized
they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made
coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he
was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid
from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid
because I was naked; so I hid."
11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you
eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave
me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you
have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me,
and I ate."
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have
done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all
the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat
dust all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between
your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will
strike his heel."
16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains
in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your
desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and
ate from the tree about which I commanded you, `You must not eat
of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through
painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat
the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you
return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you
are and to dust you will return."
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother
of all the living.
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and
clothed them.
22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one
of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out
his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live
forever."
23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work
the ground from which he had been taken.
24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the
Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and
forth to guard the way to the tree of life.