The fall

The Fall

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made
And to the woman he said
“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
“Answer me, don’t be afraid”

The woman said to the serpent “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden
But God did say and I don’t know why
‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden
And you must not touch it, or you will die’”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman
“For God knows that when you eat from it despite you shouldn’t
Your eyes will be opened
And you will be like God, knowing evil and good”

When the woman saw
That the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye
And also desirable for gaining wisdom
She took some and ate it and didn’t die

She also gave some to her husband
Who was with her, and he ate it
Then the eyes of both of them were opened
And they realized they were naked

So they sewed fig leaves together
And made for themselves coverings
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God
As in the garden in the cool of the day he was walking

And they hid from the Lord God
Among the trees of the garden
But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden

And I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid”
And Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree
that you not to eat from I commanded?”

The man said, “The woman you put here with me—
She gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it”
Then the Lord God said to the woman
“What is this you have done despite I commanded?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
So the Lord God to the serpent said
“Because you have done this
“Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly
And you will eat dust all the days of your life
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman, enmity from above

And between your offspring and hers
He will crush your head
And you will strike his heel”
And To the woman He said

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe
With painful labor you will give to children their birth
Your desire will be for your husband
And he will rule over you till the death”

To Adam He said
“Because you listened to your wife and not Me
And ate fruit from the tree
About which I commanded you ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you
Through painful toil all the days of your life you will eat food from it
It will produce thorns and thistles for you
And you will eat the plants of the field

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food
Until you return to the ground since from it you were taken
For dust you are and to dust you will return
In the end you will learn how to live and not be mistaken”

Adam named his wife Eve
Because she would become the mother of all the living
The Lord God made garments of skin
For Adam and his wife and clothed them with these things

And the Lord God said
“The man has now become like one of us, knowing evil and good
He must not be allowed to reach out his hand
And take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. Understood?”

So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden
To work the ground from which he had been taken
After he drove the man out
Drove him out for his mistake

He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim
And a flaming sword flashing back and forth day and night
To guard the way to the tree of life
And there was no chance for anyone to win this fight