1 The serpent was more cunning than any of the other wild animals that the Lord God had made. He asked Eve, “Did God really say that you can't eat fruit from every tree in the garden?” 2 Eve replied to the serpent, “We can eat from the trees in the garden, but not the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. 3 God told us, ‘You mustn't eat from that tree, or even touch it, otherwise you'll die.’” 4 “You certainly won't die,” the serpent told Eve. 5 “It's because God knows that as soon as you eat it, you'll see things differently, and you'll be like God, knowing both what is good and what is evil.” 6 Eve saw that the fruit of the tree appeared good to eat. It looked very attractive. She really wanted it so she could become wise. So she took some of its fruit and ate it, and she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it too. 7 Immediately they saw everything differently and realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves up. 8 Later they heard the Lord walking in the garden in the evening when the breeze was blowing. Adam and Eve went and hid out of sight of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 The Lord God called out to Adam, “Where are you?” 10 “I heard you walking in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid,” he replied. 11 “Who told you that you were naked?” asked the Lord God. “Did you eat fruit from the tree I ordered you not to?” 12 “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit from the tree, and I ate it,” Adam replied. 13 The Lord God asked Eve, “Why have you done this?” “The serpent tricked me, and so I ate it,” she replied. 14 Then the Lord God told the serpent, “Because of what you've done, you are cursed more than any of the other animals. You will slide along on your belly and eat dust as long as you live. 15 I will make sure you and your children, and the woman and her children, are enemies. One of her children will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” 16 He told Eve, “I will make pregnancy much more difficult, and giving birth will be very painful. However, you will still desire your husband, but he will have control over you.” 17 He told Adam, “Because you did what your wife told you, and ate fruit from the tree after I ordered you, ‘Don't eat fruit from this tree,’ the ground is now cursed because of you. You will have to work painfully hard to grow food from it throughout your whole life. 18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you, and you will have to eat wild plants. 19 You will have to sweat to grow enough food to eat until you die and return to the ground. For you were made from dust and you will return to dust.” 20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she was to be the mother of all human beings. 21 The Lord God made Adam and Eve clothes from animal skins and dressed them. 22 Then the Lord God observed, “Look, the human beings have become like one of us, knowing both what is good and what is evil. Now if they take the fruit from the tree of life and eat it, then they'll live forever!” 23 So the Lord God expelled them from the Garden of Eden. He sent Adam to cultivate the ground from which he'd been made. 24 After he drove them out, the Lord God placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden angels and a sword that flashed in every direction. They were to prevent access to the tree of life.
Genesis 3 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Adam
Formed from the dust by God's own hand, the father of all who live.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 1–5
Eve
The first woman, formed from Adam and named "the mother of all living."
Cited in the guide: Genesis 2-4
Cross references (24)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 2 Corinthians 11:3; 2 Corinthians 11:14; Revelation 12:9; Revelation 20:2; Matthew 4:3
- 2 Psalm 58:4
- 3 Genesis 2:16–17; 2 Corinthians 6:17; Genesis 20:6; Job 1:11; Exodus 19:12–13
- 4 John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14; 2 Corinthians 2:11; Genesis 3:13
- 5 Ezekiel 28:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; 2 Corinthians 11:13–15; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Genesis 2:17
- 6 1 John 2:16; James 1:14–15; 1 Timothy 2:14; 2 Samuel 11:2; Romans 5:12–19
- 7 Isaiah 59:6; Genesis 2:25; Genesis 3:5; Job 9:29–31; Isaiah 28:20
- 8 Jeremiah 23:24; Hebrews 4:13; Proverbs 15:3; Job 34:21–22; Psalm 139:1–12
- 9 Genesis 4:9; Genesis 16:8; Revelation 20:12–13; Joshua 7:17–19; Genesis 11:5
- 10 Genesis 2:25; Psalm 119:120; Isaiah 57:11; Isaiah 47:3; 1 John 3:20
- 11 Romans 3:20; Genesis 4:10; Psalm 50:21
- 12 Proverbs 28:13; James 1:13–15; Romans 10:3; Job 31:33; Luke 10:29
- 13 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14; John 18:35; Genesis 4:10–12; Genesis 3:4–6
- 14 Micah 7:17; Isaiah 65:25; Psalm 72:9; Isaiah 29:4; Leviticus 20:25
- 15 Romans 16:20; 1 John 3:8; Revelation 12:17; Isaiah 7:14; Hebrews 2:14–15
- 16 Titus 2:5; Colossians 3:18; 1 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:15; 1 Corinthians 14:34
- 17 Romans 8:20–22; Genesis 5:29; Isaiah 24:5–6; Ecclesiastes 2:22–23; John 16:33
- 18 Job 5:5; Matthew 13:7; Isaiah 7:23; Psalm 104:14–15; Proverbs 22:5
- 19 Ecclesiastes 12:7; Job 34:15; Psalm 104:29; Genesis 2:7; Psalm 90:3
- 20 Matthew 1:23; Genesis 2:23; Genesis 2:20; Genesis 5:29; Genesis 16:11
- 21 Isaiah 61:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 2 Corinthians 5:2–3; Genesis 3:7; Romans 3:22
- 22 Revelation 2:7; Revelation 22:14; Proverbs 3:18; Genesis 11:6–7; Revelation 22:2
- 23 Genesis 4:2; Genesis 4:12; Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastes 5:9; Genesis 2:5
- 24 Hebrews 1:7; Psalm 104:4; Exodus 25:18–22; 1 Chronicles 21:16–17; Hebrews 10:18–22
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
"And God," it is declared, "said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above all the beasts of the earth." And this same thing does the Lord also say in the Gospel, to those who are found upon the left hand: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which my Father …
… be subjected and bring them over unto Himself, allaying their swelling, and fostering their love; to the end that they might go on no further in self-confidence, but rather should become weak, seeing before their feet the Divinity weak by taking our "coats of skins;" and wearied, might cast themselves down upon It, and It rising, might lift them up.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
For it will be no longer, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," and thou "tillest the ground," and those former words, that will be said to us; but what is far more grievous than these, the "outer darkness," the bonds that may not be burst, the venomous worm, the "gnashing of teeth;" and this with great reason.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
Adam received the sentence, Cursed is the ground in thy labours; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
"The serpent," says she, "beguiled me, and I did eat." But He put no question to the serpent; for He knew that he had been the prime mover in the guilty deed; but He pronounced the curse upon him in the first instance, that it might fall upon man with a mitigated rebuke.