THE WORD OF ELOHIM
GENESIS
Chapter 3
Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild beasts that Yehovah Elohim had made. He said to the woman, "Did Elohim really say: You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?" The woman replied to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the other trees of the garden. It is only about fruit of the tree, in the middle of the garden, that Elohim said: You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die." And the serpent said to the woman, "You are not going to die, but Elohim knows that as soon as you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like divine beings, who know good and bad." When the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable as a source of wisdom, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they perceived that they were naked, and they sewed together fig leaves and made themselves loincloths.
They heard the sound of Yehovah Elohim, moving about in the garden, at the breezy time of day, and the man and his wife hid from Yehovah Elohim, among the trees of the garden. Yehovah Elohim called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" He replied, "I heard the sound of You in the garden and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid." Then He asked, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the tree from which I had forbidden you to eat?" The man said, "The woman You put at my side―she gave me of the tree, and I ate." And Yehovah Elohim said to the woman, "What is this you have done!" The woman replied, "The serpent duped me, and I ate." Then Yehovah Elohim said to the serpent, "Because you did this, more cursed shall you be than all cattle and all the wild beast; on your belly you shall crawl and dirt shall you eat, all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; they shall strike at your head and you shall strike at their heel." And to the woman, He said, I will make most severe your pangs in childbearing; in pain shall you bear children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you." To Adam, He said, "Because you did as your wife said and ate of the tree about which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed be the ground because of you; by toil shall you eat of it, all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you. But your food shall be the grasses of the field; by the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground―for from it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you shall return."
The man named his wife Chavah, because she was the mother of all the living. And Yehovah Elohim made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
And Yehovah Elohim said, "Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad; what if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!" So Yehovah Elohim banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he was taken. He drove the man out, and stationed east of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the fiery ever-