The NIV Study Bible

genesis chapter iii

3:1 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'?"

3:2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,

3:3 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.'"

3:4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

3:6 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.

3:7 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.

3:8 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.

3:9 But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"

3:10 He answered, "I heard You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so, I hid."

3:11 And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

3:12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

3:13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"

The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate it"

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, 

"Because you have done this,
Cursed you are 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[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] 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 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[c] 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.

Footnotes

[a] or seed

[b] or strike

[c] Eve probably means living

Other Notes

verses 1 to 24 — The disobedience of Adam and Eve, and God's response is what affected the whole course of human history

verse 1 — serpent. The great deceiver clothed himself as a serpent, one of God's good creatures. He insinuated a falsehood and portrayed rebellion as clever, but essentially innocent, self-interest. Therefore "the devil, or Satan," is later referred to as "that ancient serpent"

crafty. The craftiness of the serpent led Adam and Eve to sin, and they then became ashamed of their nakedness

Did God really say...? The question and response changed the course of human history. By causing the woman to doubt God's word, Satan brought evil into the world. Here the deceiver undertook to alienate people from God. Elsewhere he acts as an accuser to alienate God from people (Job 1-2).

verse 3 — and you must not touch it. The woman adds to God's word (2:17), distorting his directive and demonstrating that the serpent's subtle challenge was working its poison.

verse 4 — You will not surely die. The blatant denial of a specific divine pronouncement (2:17)

verse 5 — God knows. Satan accuses God of having unworthy motives. The statement of Satan is only half true. Their eyes were opened, to be sure, but the result was quite different from what the serpent had promised.

verse 6 — good for food... pleasing to the eye... desirable for gaining wisdom. Three aspects of temptation.

verse 7 — they realized they were naked. No longer innocent like children, they had a new awareness of themselves and of each other in their nakedness, which now produced in them a sense of shame

verse 9 — Where are you? A rhetorical question (see 4:9)

verse 12 to 13 — there is a blame game between Adam, Eve, and the serpent. Adam and Eve deflected their sin by using blame.

verse 15 — he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. The antagonism between people and snakes is used to symbolize the outcome of the titanic struggle between God and the evil one, a struggle played out in the hearts and history of humankind. The offspring of the woman would eventually crush the serpent's head, a promise fulfilled in Christ's victory over Satan — a victory in which all believers will share

verse 19 — return to the ground... to dust you will return. Adam's labor would not be able to stave off death. The origin of his body (see 2:7) and the source of his food (see v. 17) became a symbol of his eventual death.

verse 20 — named his wife. Not an act of claiming dominion over her but of memorializing her significance for him and the human race.

verse 21 — clothed them. God graciously provided Adam and Eve with more effective clothing to cover their shame.

verse 24 — cherubim. Probably similar to the statues of winged figures that stood guard at the entrances to palaces and temples in ancient Mesopotamia.

to guard. The sword of God's judgment stood between fallen humanity and God's garden. The reason is given in v. 22. Only through God's redemption in Christ do people have access again to the tree of life.