1. The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
2-3. The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’”
4-5. The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”
6. When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
7. Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.
14-15. God told the serpent:“Because you’ve done this, you’re cursed,cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals,Cursed to slink on your bellyand eat dirt all your life.I’m declaring war between you and the Woman,between your offspring and hers.He’ll wound your head,you’ll wound his heel.”
17-19. He told the Man:“Because you listened to your wifeand ate from the treeThat I commanded you not to eat from,‘Don’t eat from this tree,’The very ground is cursed because of you;getting food from the groundWill be as painful as having babies is for your wife;you’ll be working in pain all your life long.The ground will sprout thorns and weeds,you’ll get your food the hard way,Planting and tilling and harvesting,sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk,Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried;you started out as dirt, you’ll end up dirt.”
23-24. So God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they’d been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life.