The Word of the Lord

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Genesis 3

1 And the serpent was more· cunning ·than any wild·​·animal of the field which Jehovah God had made; and he said to the woman, Yea, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said to the serpent, Of the fruit of the tree of the garden we may eat;
3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.
4 And the serpent said to the woman, Dying you shall· not ·die.
5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil.
6 And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was appealing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make· one ·intelligent, and she took from its fruit and did eat, and she gave also to her man with her, and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of the two of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made girdles for themselves.
8 And they heard the voice of Jehovah God going to itself in the garden in the wind of the day; and |man and his wife hid·​·themselves from the face of Jehovah God in the midst of the tree of the garden.
9 And Jehovah God called to |man, and said to him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I feared, for I was naked; and I hid·​·myself.
11 And He said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee not to eat?
12 And |man said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with·​·me, she gave to me from the tree, and I ate.
13 And Jehovah God said to the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.
14 And Jehovah God said to the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed more·​·than every beast, and more·​·than every wild·​·animal of the field; on thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; He shall injure1 thy head, and thou shalt injure His heel.
16 And to the woman He said, Multiplying I will multiply thy grief and thy conception; in grief thou shalt bring·​·forth sons, and thy desire2 shall be to thy man, and he shall rule over thee.
17 And to man He said, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten from the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat from it; cursed is the ground on account of thee; in great grief shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
18 And the thorn and the thistle it shall make grow for thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
19 By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread, until thou return to the ground; for out·​·of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return.
20 And man called the name of his wife Eve3, for she was the mother of all the living4.
21 And Jehovah God made for man and for his wife tunics of skin, and clothed them.
22 And Jehovah God said, Behold, |man was as one of us5, knowing good and evil; and now lest he put·​·forth his hand, and take also of the tree of lives, and eat, and live to eternity
23 and Jehovah God sent· him ·out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.
24 And He drove·​·out |man; and He caused cherubim to abide from the east toward the garden of Eden, and the flame of the sword turning itself, to keep the way of the tree of lives.

1This word is rendered “trample on” (Latin conculcabit) in the Heavenly Doctrine, but the same Hebrew word in the following phrase in this verse is rendered “injure” (Latin laedes), as in AC 250, 258, and elsewhere.

2or “obedience” (see AC 261, AE 721:26)

3“Eve” is “a name signifying life, which is of love alone” (AC 476).

4The Hebrew word for “living” is chay, which is related to Chawah, the Hebrew for “Eve.”

5The Latin of the Arcana Coelestia makes clear that the verb here is in the past tense. The Heavenly Doctrine says further, “The man’s ‘knowing good and evil’ signifies that he was made celestial, and thus wise and intelligent” (AC 298), and this took place before he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In contrast, almost all English translations render this phrase, “man has become like one of us,” which reflects the lie of the serpent to the woman in verse 3 of this chapter.