1 Now the serpent was more shrewd than any other beast of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, 'You must not eat from any tree of the garden'?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees of the garden, 3 but concerning the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, 'You may not eat it, nor may you touch it, or you will die.'” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You will surely not die. 5 For God knows that the day you eat it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. Then she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. 7 The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 They heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, so the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden. 9 Yahweh God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 The man said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked. So I hid myself.” 11 God 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 whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13 Yahweh God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent lied to me, and I ate.” 14 Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you alone among all the livestock and all the beasts of the field. It is on your stomach that you will go, and it is dust that you will eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in having children; it is in pain that you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, but he will rule over you.” 17 To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree, concerning which I commanded you, saying, 'You may not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you; through painful work you will eat from 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 face you will eat bread, until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you will return.” 20 The man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all the living. 21 Yahweh God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. 22 Yahweh God said, “Now the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. So now he must not be allowed to reach out with his hand, take from the tree of life, eat it, and live forever.” 23 Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken. 24 So God drove the man out of the garden, and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword that turned every way, in order to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis · Unlocked Literal Bible
Genesis 3 Unlocked Literal Bible
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.