At the time when the Lord made earth and heaven — before there were any plants on the earth and before any grasses had sprouted, for the Lord had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but a stream would well up from the earth to water the whole surface of the ground — the Lord formed a man from the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
And the Lord planted a garden in Eden, to the east, and he grew from the ground every kind of tree that is beautiful to look at and good to eat from, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the Lord took the man he had formed and put him in the garden of Eden, to work it and care for it. And the Lord said to the man, “From all the treesin the garden you are allowed to eat. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not allowed to eat; for as soon as you eat from it, you will die.”
And the Lord said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a partner to help him.” So from the ground the Lord formed all the animals and all the birds and brought each one to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called it, that was its name. And the man gave names to all the birds and to all the animals; but for the man no partner was found.
So the Lord caused a deep trance to fall upon the man. And as the man slept, the Lord took out one of his ribs and closed up his side with flesh. And he built the rib into a woman, and he brought her to the man. And the man said, “This one at last is bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh. She will be called woman, because from man she was taken.” (That is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins with his wife, and they become one flesh.) And both of them were naked, the man and his wife, and they felt no shame.
Now the serpent was more cunning than any creature the Lord had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say that you’re not allowed to eat from any tree in the garden?”
And the woman said, “We are allowed to eat from any tree in the garden. It’s just the tree in the middle of the garden that we must not eat from, because God said, ‘If you eat from it, or even touch it, you die.’ ”
And the serpent said, “You will not die. God knows that as soon as you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.”
And when the woman saw that the tree was good to eat from and beautiful to look at, she took one of its fruits and ate, and gave it to her husband, and he ate too. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid from the Lord among the trees of the garden.
And the Lord called to the man,” Where are you?”
And the man said, “I heard you walking in the garden, and I saw that I was naked, so I hid.”
And the Lord said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?”
And the man said, “The woman you gave me as a companion — she gave me a fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
And the Lord said to the woman, “What is this that you have done!”
And the woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”
And the Lord said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you:
cut off from all the animals.
On your belly you shall move
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman
and between your offspring and hers;
they shall strike at your head
and you shall strike at their heels.”
And to the woman he said,
“I will greatly multiply
your suffering and your pain.
In pain you shall give birth to children;
and you shall be subject to your husband
and he shall rule over you.”
And to the man he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree I commanded you not to eat from,
Cursed is the ground beneath you;
thorns and thistles it shall sprout.
By the sweat of your face
you shall grow food,
until you return to the ground,
as you were taken from it.
For dust you are,
and to dust you shall return.”
And the man named his wife Eve, Life, because she became the mother of all the living.
And the Lord made clothes of skin for the man and his wife, and dressed them.
And the Lord said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, what if he reaches out and takes a fruit from the tree of life too, and eats, and lives forever?”
So the Lord drove him out of the garden of Eden, to work the ground he had been taken from. He banished the man, and at the east of the garden he stationed the kerubs and the fiery whirling sword, to guard the path to the tree of life.