Now
the serpent was the shrewdest of all the creatures the Lord God had made.
"Really?" he asked the woman. "Did God really say you must not
eat any of the fruit in the garden?"
"Of
course we may eat it," the woman told him. "It's only the fruit from
the tree at the center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God says
we must not eat it or even touch it, or we will die."
"You
won't die!" the serpent hissed. "God knows that your eyes will be
opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both
good and evil."
The
woman was convinced. The fruit looked so fresh and delicious, and it would make
her so wise! So she ate some of the fruit. She also gave some to her husband,
who was with her. Then he ate it, too. At that moment, their eyes were opened,
and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they strung fig leaves
together around their hips to cover themselves.
Toward
evening they heard the Lord God walking about in the garden, so they hid
themselves among the trees. The Lord God called to Adam, "Where are
you?"
He
replied, "I heard you, so I hid. I was afraid because I was
naked." "Who told you that you
were naked?" the Lord God asked. "Have you eaten the fruit I
commanded you not to eat?"
"Yes,"
Adam admitted, "but it was the woman you gave me who brought me the fruit,
and I ate it."
Then
the Lord God asked the woman, "How could you do such a thing?"
"The
serpent tricked me," she replied. "That's why I ate it."
So
the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you will be
punished. You are singled out from all the domestic and wild animals of the whole
earth to be cursed. You will grovel in the dust as long as you live, crawling
along on your belly. From now on, you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and
her offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head, and you will strike his
heel."
Then
he said to the woman, "You will bear children with intense pain and
suffering. And though your desire will be for your husband, he will be your
master."
And
to Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit I
told you not to eat, I have placed a curse on the ground. All your life you
will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for
you,though you will eat of its grains. All your life you will sweat to produce
food, until your dying day. Then you will return to the ground from which you
came. For you were made from dust, and to the dust you will return."
Then
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all people
everywhere. And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his
wife.
Then
the Lord God said, "The people have become as we are, knowing everything,
both good and evil. What if they eat the fruit of the tree of life? Then they
will live forever!" So the Lord God banished Adam and his wife from the
Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had
been made. After banishing them from the garden, the Lord God stationed mighty
angelic beings to the east of Eden. And a flaming sword flashed back and forth,
guarding the way to the tree of life. (NLT)
This reading is taken from 30
Scripture Readings for New Christians. The complete book can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005KYN34Q
HOLY BIBLE, NEW LIVING TRANSLATION copyright © 1996. Used by
permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189.
All rights reserved.
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