Genesis 3:23

23 So the Lord God forced the man out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

Genesis 3:23 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 3:23

Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of
Eden
Gave him orders to depart immediately; sent or put him away as a man does his wife, when he divorces her; or as a prince banishes a rebellious subject: for how long Adam was in the garden (See Gill on Psalms 49:12), however, he did not send him to hell at once, as he did the apostate angels, but

to till the ground, from whence he was taken:
either the earth in general, out of which he was made, and to which he must return, and in the mean while must labour hard, in digging and ploughing, in planting and sowing, that so he might get a livelihood; or that particular spot out of which he was formed, which is supposed from hence to have been without the garden of Eden, though very probably near unto it: some say it was a field near Damascus; the Targum of Jonathan is,

``he went and dwelt in Mount Moriah, to till the ground out of which he was created;''

and so other Jewish writers say F16, the gate of paradise was near Mount Moriah, and there Adam dwelt after he was cast out.


FOOTNOTES:

F16 Pirke Eliezer, c. 20. fol. 20. 2.

Genesis 3:23 In-Context

21 The Lord God made clothes from animal skins for the man and his wife and dressed them.
22 Then the Lord God said, "The man has become like one of us; he knows good and evil. We must keep him from eating some of the fruit from the tree of life, or he will live forever."
23 So the Lord God forced the man out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
24 After God forced the man 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.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.