A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Genesis 3
Genesis 3 is the third chapter of the Bible and contains one of the most consequential narratives in scripture: the fall of humanity. The 24-verse chapter records how the first man and woman disobey God and how their relationship with God, with each other, and with creation is transformed as a result.
The chapter opens by introducing the serpent, described as more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God has made. The serpent approaches the woman and asks if God really said they cannot eat from any tree in the garden. The woman corrects him: they may eat from the trees, but not from the tree in the middle of the garden, or they will die.
The serpent contradicts God's warning directly: "You will not surely die. For God knows that on the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
The woman looks at the tree and sees that it is good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom. She takes some of its fruit and eats it. She gives some to her husband, who is with her, and he eats it too.
Their eyes are opened, and they realize they are naked. They sew fig leaves together to cover themselves. When they hear the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden, they hide among the trees.
God calls to the man and asks where he is. The man admits he was afraid because he was naked. God asks who told him he was naked, and whether he has eaten from the tree. The man blames the woman; the woman blames the serpent.
God pronounces three judgments. The serpent will crawl on its belly and eat dust; there will be enmity between its offspring and the woman's offspring, who will crush its head while it strikes his heel. The woman's pain in childbirth will increase, and her relationship with her husband will be marked by conflict. The man will toil through painful labor on cursed ground all the days of his life, and will return to the dust.
God makes garments of skin for the man and the woman and clothes them. He drives them out of the garden and stations cherubim with a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life.
Verse 1. Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”
Verse 2. The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden,
Verse 3. but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’”
Verse 4. “You will not surely die,” the serpent told the woman.
Verse 5. “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Verse 6. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.
Verse 7. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.
Verse 8. Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Verse 9. But the LORD God called out to the man, “Where are you?”
Verse 10. “I heard Your voice in the garden,” he replied, “and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
Verse 11. “Who told you that you were naked?” asked the LORD God. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
Verse 12. And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Verse 13. Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.”
Verse 14. So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life.
Verse 15. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Verse 16. To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
Verse 17. And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
Verse 18. Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
Verse 19. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
Verse 20. And Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all the living.
Verse 21. And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.
Verse 22. Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”
Verse 23. Therefore the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Verse 24. So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.
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