3
1 But the snake was more devious than any other animal of the field that the Lord God had created. It said to the woman, “Now did God really say, ‘Don’t eat from any of the trees of the garden?’”1
2 The woman answered the snake, “We can eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden.
3 But from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘Don’t eat from it, and don’t touch it, or you will die.’”
4 Then the snake said to the woman, “Come on! You won’t die!
5 Actually, God knows that on the day that the two of you eat from it, your eyes will open up and you will be just like God, knowing both good and evil!”
6 Then the woman saw that the fruit tree looked delicious and was sensual to the eyes. Because the tree was desirable for becoming knowledgeable, she took from its fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her, which he ate.2
7 As a result, their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked. So, they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings.3
8 Following this, God’s voice was heard going through the garden during the windy time of the day. The man and his wife hid from the Lord God in the midst of the trees of the garden.
9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 (The man) answered, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
11 And (God) said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree from which I instructed you never to eat?”
12 Then the man replied, “The woman that you gave me, she gave it to me off of the tree, and I ate it.”
13 So the Lord God said to the woman, “What did you do?” The woman answered, “The snake misled me, and so I ate it.”
14 The Lord God then spoke to the snake, “Because you did this, you are cursed above and beyond any other creature and animal of the field. You will crawl on your stomach, and you will eat dust for your entire life.
15 I have also decreed that hostility will exist between you and the woman, and between your descendants and hers; (her descendant) will crush your head, but you will nip at his heels.”
16 He then said to the woman, “I will greatly increase your suffering in childbirth; in pain you will bear children, and you will desire your husband. He will have authority over you, to protect you.”
17 He said to the man, “Because you took your wife’s advice and you ate from the tree that I instructed you about, saying that you should not eat from it, the ground will be cursed because of you. During your entire lifetime, you will eat the ground’s produce only through hard work.
18 Therefore, you will find thorns and thistles growing (from the ground), and you will eat the vegetation of the field.
19 By the sweat of your eyebrows you will eat bread till the day you die. Because you were made from dust, you will return to dust.”
20 The man named his wife “Chava” because she was the mother of all human life.4
21 Then the Lord God made animal skin clothing for the man and his wife, to dress them.
22 The Lord God said, “The man is like one of us, knowing good from evil. So in order that he doesn’t try to take anything from the tree of life and eat it, then live forever . . .”5
23 the Lord God exiled him from the garden of delight, so that he would farm the very ground from which he was created.
24 And so He expelled the man. Then winged beings were stationed in front of the garden of delight, along with the rotating, flaming sword that guarded the way to the tree of life.6
1. vv. 1–4: When God told the man and woman that they would die, it is clear that He didn’t mean an immediate death. The Targum Yonatan translates 2.17 as: “For on the day in which you eat of it, you shall be guilty of death.” As Rabbi Shlomo Riskin has noted: “. . .that is, judged worthy of death, but not necessarily suffer an immediate execution” (Riskin, “There is Still Time”). Physical death became the eventual fate of these first two humans, as well as the fate of their descendants.
2. v. 6: Bereshit Rabbah identified this tree as a fig tree, based on the fact that the leaves that were sewn together by the man and woman were fig leaves. Other rabbi-commentators have made various conjectures as to the identity of the fruit, including grapes, wheat (!), and apples. See Rabbi Yose’s comment in Bereshit Rabbah to Genesis 15:7.
3. v. 7: “Coverings” describes the function of these leaves; the Hebrew word hagorot may refer to a belt or midsection undergarment, possibly a type of wrap.
4. v. 20: The name Chava is connected to the word “life” (chay) in Hebrew.
5. v. 22: The Ramban notes that when the Messiah comes, men will choose to do good instead of evil. He writes that the desire to do evil is the outcome of Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit: “But during the days of the Messiah, the selection between good and evil will be instinctive for them (mankind). Their hearts will not crave that which is not fit. They will not desire it at all” (Singer, Ramban, 31).
6. v. 24: These “winged beings” are called cherubim in Hebrew. They are a type of angelic creature that are written about in Exodus 25.19 and 37.8, as well as some eleven times in the book of Ezekiel. Here their function is to serve as guards in the garden. The sword’s motion is described in Hebrew as “mithapeket.” This could refer to a circular type of movement (“revolving,” as I translate it here), or to a dipping and “flipping over” motion. This word refers to a rotational movement. Whatever the motion itself entailed, it is clear that the sword’s purpose was to restrict or prevent entry. Who would see the sword and be discouraged to enter the garden? This must be intended to keep the man and his wife (and possibly future descendants) from trying to return there.
Chapter 4
1 The man had sexual relations with Chava, his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. So she said, “I have gotten a child from the Lord.”1
2 And again she gave birth, to his brother, Hevel, who became a shepherd. Cain was a farmer.2
3 After a passage of some time, Cain brought some ground produce as an offering to God.
