Genesis 3:12-22

12 The man said, "You gave this woman to me and she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it."

13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, "How could you have done such a thing?" She answered, "The snake tricked me, so I ate the fruit."

14 The Lord God said to the snake, "Because you did this, a curse will be put on you. You will be cursed as no other animal, tame or wild, will ever be. You will crawl on your stomach, and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

15 I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Your descendants and her descendants will be enemies. One of her descendants will crush your head, and you will bite his heel."

16 Then God said to the woman, "I will cause you to have much trouble when you are pregnant, and when you give birth to children, you will have great pain. You will greatly desire your husband, but he will rule over you."

17 Then God said to the man, "You listened to what your wife said, and you ate fruit from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat. "So I will put a curse on the ground, and you will have to work very hard for your food. In pain you will eat its food all the days of your life.

18 The ground will produce thorns and weeds for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

19 You will sweat and work hard for your food. Later you will return to the ground, because you were taken from it. You are dust, and when you die, you will return to the dust."

20 The man named his wife Eve, because she is the mother of everyone who has ever lived.

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."

Genesis 3:12-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 3

In this chapter an account is given of the temptation of our first parents, of the instrument of it, and of their fall into it, and of the effect of it, Ge 3:1-7 their summons upon it to appear before God, against whom they had sinned, Ge 3:8-10 their examination by him, and the excuses they made, Ge 3:11-13 the various sentences passed of the serpent, the woman, and the man, Ge 3:14-19 some incidental things recorded, expressive of faith and hope in man, and of favour to him, Ge 3:20,21 and his expulsion from the garden of Eden, Ge 3:22-24.