Genesis 3:14-4:16
New Century Version
14 The Lord God said to the snake,
“Because you did this,
a curse will be put on you.
You will be cursed as no other animal, tame or wild, will ever be.
You will crawl on your stomach,
and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will make you and the woman
enemies to each other.
Your descendants and her descendants
will be enemies.
One of her descendants will crush your head,
and you will bite his heel.”
16 Then God said to the woman,
“I will cause you to have much trouble
when you are pregnant,
and when you give birth to children,
you will have great pain.
You will greatly desire your husband,
but he will rule over you.”
17 Then God said to the man, “You listened to what your wife said, and you ate fruit from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat.
“So I will put a curse on the ground,
and you will have to work very hard for your food.
In pain you will eat its food
all the days of your life.
18 The ground will produce thorns and weeds for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 You will sweat and work hard for your food.
Later you will return to the ground,
because you were taken from it.
You are dust,
and when you die, you will return to the dust.”
20 The man named his wife Eve,[a] because she was the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made clothes from animal skins for the man and his wife and dressed them. 22 Then the Lord God said, “Humans have become like one of us; they know good and evil. We must keep them from eating some of the fruit from the tree of life, or they will live forever.” 23 So the Lord God forced Adam out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 After God forced humans out of the garden, he placed angels and a sword of fire that flashed around in every direction on its eastern border. This kept people from getting to the tree of life.
The First Family
4 Adam had sexual relations with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.[b] Eve said, “With the Lord’s help, I have given birth to a man.” 2 After that, Eve gave birth to Cain’s brother Abel. Abel took care of flocks, and Cain became a farmer.
3 Later, Cain brought some food from the ground as a gift to God. 4 Abel brought the best parts from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, 5 but he did not accept Cain and his gift. So Cain became very angry and felt rejected.
6 The Lord asked Cain, “Why are you angry? Why do you look so unhappy? 7 If you do things well, I will accept you, but if you do not do them well, sin is ready to attack you. Sin wants you, but you must rule over it.”
8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out into the field.” While they were out in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
9 Later, the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
Cain answered, “I don’t know. Is it my job to take care of my brother?”
10 Then the Lord said, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground. 11 And now you will be cursed in your work with the ground, the same ground where your brother’s blood fell and where your hands killed him. 12 You will work the ground, but it will not grow good crops for you anymore, and you will wander around on the earth.”
13 Then Cain said to the Lord, “This punishment is more than I can stand! 14 Today you have forced me to stop working the ground, and now I must hide from you. I must wander around on the earth, and anyone who meets me can kill me.”
15 The Lord said to Cain, “No! If anyone kills you, I will punish that person seven times more.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain warning anyone who met him not to kill him.
Cain’s Family
16 So Cain went away from the Lord and lived in the land of Nod,[c] east of Eden.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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