no grass or plants were growing anywhere. God had not yet sent any rain, and there was no one to work the land.

But streams came up from the ground and watered the earth.

The Lord God took some soil from the ground and made a man. God breathed life into the man, and the man started breathing.

where pure gold, rare perfumes, and precious stones are found.

The second is the Gihon River that winds through Ethiopia.

The Lord God said, “It isn't good for the man to live alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.”

So the Lord took some soil and made animals and birds. He brought them to the man to see what names he would give each of them. Then the man named the tame animals and the birds and the wild animals. That's how they got their names. None of these was the right kind of partner for the man.

So the Lord God made him fall into a deep sleep, and he took out one of the man's ribs. Then after closing the man's side,

and the man exclaimed, “Here is someone like me! She is part of my body, my own flesh and bones. She came from me, a man. So I will name her Woman!”

The First Sin

The snake was sneakier than any of the other wild animals that the Lord God had made. One day it came to the woman and asked, “Did God tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?”

The woman answered, “God said we could eat fruit from any tree in the garden,

“No, you won't!” the snake replied.

“God understands what will happen on the day you eat fruit from that tree. You will see what you have done, and you will know the difference between right and wrong, just as God does.”

The woman stared at the fruit. It looked beautiful and tasty. She wanted the wisdom that it would give her, and she ate some of the fruit. Her husband was there with her, so she gave some to him, and he ate it too.

At once they saw what they had done, and they realized they were naked. Then they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

Late in the afternoon, when the breeze began to blow, the man and woman heard the Lord God walking in the garden. So they hid behind some trees.

Sin Brings a Curse

The Lord God called out to the man and asked, “Where are you?”

“It was the woman you put here with me,” the man said. “She gave me some of the fruit, and I ate it.”

The Lord God then asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The snake tricked me,” she answered, “and I ate some of that fruit.”

So the Lord God said to the snake: “Because of what you have done, you will be the only animal to suffer this curse— For as long as you live, you will crawl on your stomach and eat dirt.

You and this woman will hate each other; your descendants and hers will always be enemies. One of hers will strike you on the head, and you will strike him on the heel.”

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “You will suffer terribly when you give birth. But you will still desire your husband, and he will rule over you.”

The Lord said to the man, “You listened to your wife and ate the fruit I told you not to eat. And so, the ground will be under a curse because of what you did. As long as you live, you will have to struggle to grow enough food.

You will sweat all your life to earn a living; you were made out of soil, and you will once again turn into soil.”

The man Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all who live.