Genesis 2:15-3:10

Christian Standard Bible

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden,^{(A) 17} but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”^{(B) 18} Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding^(C) to him.” ¹⁹ The Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it.^(D) And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man^[a] no helper was found corresponding to him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man,^(E) and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. ²² Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.^{(F) 23} And the man said:

²⁴ This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.^{(H) 25} Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

The Temptation and the Fall

3 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” ^(I)

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. ³ But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”^(J)

⁴ “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman.^{(K) 5} “In fact, God knows that when^[b] you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.^{(L) 7} Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Sin’s Consequences

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze,^[c] and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.^{(M) 9} So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ And he said, “I heard you^[d] in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”