The Daily Audio Bible

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any wild animal which Adonai, God, had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You are not to eat from any tree in the garden’?” ² The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden, ³ but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, ‘You are neither to eat from it nor touch it, or you will die.’” ⁴ The serpent said to the woman, “It is not true that you will surely die; ⁵ because God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it had a pleasing appearance and that the tree was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her; and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together to make themselves loincloths.

⁸ They heard the voice of Adonai, God, walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, so the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Adonai, God, among the trees in the garden. ⁹ Adonai, God, called to the man, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ He answered, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I ordered you not to eat?” ¹² The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me — she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Adonai, God, said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me, so I ate.”

¹⁴ Adonai, God, said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all livestock and wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and eat dust as long as you live. ¹⁵ I will put animosity between you and the woman, and between your descendant and her descendant; he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”

¹⁶ To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pain in childbirth. You will bring forth children in pain. Your desire will be toward your husband, but he will rule over you.”

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to what your wife said and ate from the tree about which I gave you the order, ‘You are not to eat from it,’ the ground is cursed on your account; you will work hard to eat from it as long as you live. ¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat field plants. ¹⁹ You will eat bread by the sweat of your forehead till you return to the ground — for you were taken out of it: you are dust, and you will return to dust.”

²⁰ The man called his wife Havah [life], because she was the mother of all living.

²¹ Adonai, God, made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

(A: v, S: iv) ²² Adonai, God, said, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, to prevent his putting out his hand and taking also from the tree of life, eating, and living forever — ” ²³ therefore Adonai, God, sent him out of the garden of ‘Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ So he drove the man out, and he placed at the east of the garden of ‘Eden the k’ruvim and a flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

4 The man had sexual relations with Havah his wife; she conceived, gave birth to Kayin [acquisition] and said, “I have acquired a man from Adonai.” ² In addition she gave birth to his brother Hevel. Hevel kept sheep, while Kayin worked the soil. ³ In the course of time Kayin brought an offering to Adonai from the produce of the soil; ⁴ and Hevel too brought from the firstborn of his sheep, including their fat. Adonai accepted Hevel and his offering ⁵ but did not accept Kayin and his offering. Kayin was very angry, and his face fell. ⁶ Adonai said to Kayin, “Why are you angry? Why so downcast? ⁷ If you are doing what is good, shouldn’t you hold your head high? And if you don’t do what is good, sin is crouching at the door — it wants you, but you can rule over it.” ⁸ Kayin had words with Hevel his brother; then one time, when they were in the field, Kayin turned on Hevel his brother and killed him.

⁹ Adonai said to Kayin, “Where is Hevel your brother?” And he replied, “I don’t know; am I my brother’s guardian?” ¹⁰ He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! ¹¹ Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood at your hands. ¹² When you farm the ground it will no longer yield its strength to you. You will be a fugitive, wandering the earth.” ¹³ Kayin said to Adonai, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. ¹⁴ You are banning me today from the land and from your presence. I will be a fugitive wandering the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” ¹⁵ Adonai answered him, “Therefore, whoever kills Kayin will receive vengeance sevenfold,” and Adonai put a sign on Kayin, so that no one who found him would kill him. ¹⁶ So Kayin left the presence of Adonai and lived in the land of Nod [wandering], east of ‘Eden.

¹⁷ Kayin had sexual relations with his wife; she conceived and gave birth to Hanokh. Kayin built a city and named the city after his son Hanokh. ¹⁸ To Hanokh was born ‘Irad. ‘Irad fathered Mechuya’el, Mechuya’el fathered Metusha’el, and Metusha’el fathered Lemekh.

(S: v) ¹⁹ Lemekh took himself two wives; the name of the one was ‘Adah, while the name of the other was Tzilah. ²⁰ ‘Adah gave birth to Yaval; he was the ancestor of those who live in tents and have cattle. ²¹ His brother’s name was Yuval; and he was the ancestor of all who play lyre and flute. ²² Tzilah gave birth to Tuval-Kayin, who forged all kinds of tools from brass and iron; the sister of Tuval-Kayin was Na‘amah. ²³ Lemekh said to his wives,

²⁵ Adam again had sexual relations with his wife, and she gave birth to a son whom she named Shet [granted], “For God has granted me another seed in place of Hevel, since Kayin killed him.” ²⁶ To Shet too was born a son, whom he called Enosh. That is when people began to call on the name of Adonai.

¹³ After they had gone, an angel of Adonai appeared to Yosef in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you to leave. For Herod is going to look for the child in order to kill him.” ¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother, and left during the night for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until Herod died. This happened in order to fulfill what Adonai had said through the prophet,

¹⁶ Meanwhile, when Herod realized that the Magi had tricked him, he was furious and gave orders to kill all the boys in and around Beit-Lechem who were two years old or less, calculating from the time the Magi had told him. ¹⁷ In this way were fulfilled the words spoken through the prophet Yirmeyahu,

¹⁹ After Herod’s death, an angel of Adonai appeared in a dream to Yosef in Egypt ²⁰ and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to Eretz-Yisra’el, for those who wanted to kill the child are dead.” ²¹ So he got up, took the child and his mother, and went back to Eretz-Yisra’el. ²² However, when he heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Y’hudah, he was afraid to go there. Warned in a dream, he withdrew to the Galil ²³ and settled in a town called Natzeret, so that what had been spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he will be called a Natzrati.

3 It was during those days that Yochanan the Immerser arrived in the desert of Y’hudah and began proclaiming the message, ² “Turn from your sins to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!” ³ This is the man Yesha‘yahu was talking about when he said,

⁴ Yochanan wore clothes of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ People went out to him from Yerushalayim, from all Y’hudah, and from the whole region around the Yarden. ⁶ Confessing their sins, they were immersed by him in the Yarden River.