Genesis3

Genesis 3:1-24(ESV)
¹Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You^£ shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 
²And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 
³but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 
⁴But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 
⁵For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 
⁶So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,^£ she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 
⁷Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
⁸And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 
⁹But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”^£ 
10And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 
¹¹He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 
¹²The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 
¹³Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
¹⁴The Lord God said to the serpent,      “Because you have done this,      cursed are you above all livestock     and above all beasts of the field;      on your belly you shall go,      and dust you shall eat     all the days of your life.
¹⁵    I will put enmity between you and the woman,     and between your offspring^£ and her offspring;      he shall bruise your head,      and you shall bruise his heel.”
¹⁶To the woman he said,      “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;      in pain you shall bring forth children.      Your desire shall be for^£ your husband,      and he shall rule over you.”
¹⁷And to Adam he said,      “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife      and have eaten of the tree      of which I commanded you,      ‘You shall not eat of it,’      cursed is the ground because of you;      in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
¹⁸    thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;      and you shall eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹    By the sweat of your face      you shall eat bread,      till you return to the ground,      for out of it you were taken;      for you are dust,      and to dust you shall return.”
²⁰The man called his wife’s name Eve,^£ because she was the mother of all living. 
²¹And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
²²Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 
²³therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 
²⁴He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

 

V.1 – ¹Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You^£ shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 
The Hebrew word for ‘crafty’ is not primarily a negative word in the Bible it suggests wisdom and adroitness (Dict.: Skillful and adept under pressing conditions.)

However, the serpent and his wisdom (arum)  lead ultimately to the curse (arur v.14)

Gen. 3:2-7

 

The snake speaks only twice…  it is enough to offset the balance of trust and obedience with the Creator. 

 

“You surely will not die!   –  “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

 

Three counter claims:  1) they will not die, 2) “your eyes will be opened” a metaphor for knowledge.  It was a suggestion that a newfound awareness to be gained that was not previously present.,  3) they will gain what belongs to God, “knowing good and evil”.  –  Satan was contenting that God was holding her back.  We see it’s uses today when one state that someone is holding them back.

Their desire was not just for the fruit, but for the gaining of wisdom….  This temptation is not to show a general rebellion from God’s authority, instead it showed a portrayal of a quest for wisdom and ‘the good’ apart from God’s provision.  The key being it that it was a quest for wisdom apart from God.

In our lives today, do we have a quest for wisdom apart from God?   Instead we want to secure the wisdom by self-understanding and that we can do it without God.  Our view is that of it being ‘wise in our own eyes’.  We don’t want to accept what some things in the Bible say because it does not make sense in our human understanding.  i.e. the trinity – preselecting of saints – why pray to request things from God when He knows everything and will do His will.  It would be important for us to place ourselves under God and in a position of depending on Him.   A waiting on Him.

In the garden Adam & Eve acted to obtain the knowledge on their own – to enjoy the ‘good’. 

V. 8 – When hearing God – perhaps in the wind or AM or Evening – they hid in the trees.

When they ate their eyes were open and found themselves naked and feeling shameful. They wanted to hide their differences from each other. 

The serpent’s half-truths concealed falsehood and let the woman to expect a different result.  The serpent spoke only what she would gain and avoided mentioning what she would lose in the process. 

1.       They did not die immediately, but death was soon enough.  They were removed from the garden and indicative of death.  ILLUSTRATED in the nation of Israel when members were discovered ceremonially unclean; such victims were counted as dead men in mourning.  (Lev. 13:45)  

2.       Their eyes were opened and was rewarded only with seeing their nakedness and were burdened with human guilt and embarrassment.  It was an unexpected cost.  They achieved isolation and fear.  They obtained ‘wisdom’ in exchange for death.

Made coverings because what is ‘pleasing to the eye’ causes displeasure with their own nakedness and a need to cover it.   They lost their innocence of living without shame.  They lost their innocence, their childlike trust in the goodness of God. 

V.9-13 – the trial

God merely asks man questions:

1.       Where are you?

2.       Who told you that you were naked?

3.       Have you eaten from the tree?

4.       What is it that you have done?

It might be similar to today in a court of law where questions are asked before judgment is rendered.   Like when Cain killed Abel and was asked:  “Where is your brother Abel?  What have you done?  Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out from the ground.”

V.7,10,11 – the word ‘naked’ gives man the opportunity to be convicted with his own words.   “I was afraid because I was naked”  “Shame” was now felt in the presence of the other.  V.11 links ‘naked’ with the resulting factor of their sin.  Disobedience brings shame….

1^st question:  “Where are you?”  No one required to tell the man of his shame becausehe experiences guilt for this crime.  It was true guilt  arising from a violated conscience.

2^nd question:  Who told you that you were naked?  –  Adam’s nakedness is linked to his transgression concerning the tree. 

By these two questions it shows that man’s sense of shame arose from his defiance of God’s command.

In our present life do we not find our conscious is in conflict (pain) when we practice sin in our lives?  Even unknown sin becomes a burden when it is brought to our attention.  As an example: 

A command that we are to love one another.  Therefore, if someone comes to us and states we have offended or hurt them by a particular remark we made.   We humbly bring that before God for our failure to show love to our brother.   Yet we are grateful that our brother approached us so we can have the opportunity to right the wrong.

 

The responses of both Adam and Eve show blame shifting. 

Adam says that it was she caused him to eat and in essence saying to God that she was a Mistake.  That God was ultimately responsible for his demise. 

Eve shift the blame to the other party, the serpent. 

Have we not seen a display of ‘blame shifting’ in our society today?

 

V.14-15

The snake was ‘crafty”  (arum v.1)  now he was cursed (arur v.14)  –  He must ‘crawl on his belly and…eat dust all the days of his life” (v.14)  – Eating dust emphasis lies in the snake’s ‘eating dust’ as an expression that elsewhere carries the meaning of ‘total defeat’  (Isa. 65:25 and Mic. 7:17)

H6175.  עָרוּםʿârûwm, aw-room´; pass. part. of 6191; cunning (usually in a bad sense):—crafty, prudent, subtil.

This word was used 8xs in Proverbs and 2xs in Job…

Pr. 12:16 – …But a prudent man conceals…

Pr. 14:15 – …But the sensible man considers…

 

For the serpent the punishment has three aspects:  1) consignment to crawling on its belly, 2) the eating of dust “all the days of your life”, and 3) its ultimate destruction by the wounded ‘seed’ of the woman.

His life was now a life of humiliation and by the diet of dust it will be a perpetual reminder of its crime.   His life was “Cursed” as it  will eat dust the rest of his life….  Meaning a ‘total defeat’….

The seed of Satan will be in enmity with the seed of the Woman.  Thus the seed of the woman will crush it.  That prime seed is “Christ”.   Read:  Gen. 3:15

The ‘seed’ is now suffering its fate…   the ‘seed’ of the snake and the ‘seed’ of the woman.  This sets up the future outcome of the two groups from that seed.  The seed of the snake will suffer the crushing blow scheduled for Satan and His seed.  Whereas the seed of the woman will be in an opposite camp and will reap the blessings in store for their living in a separate condition and style. 

“Seed” is a critical term in the Pentateuch where the genealogical lineage of the chosen family.   Hostility within occurs with the wicked act of Cain killing Abel. 

 

V16 + answers who the “seed” of the woman is:

Genesis 3:16(ESV)
¹⁶To the woman he said,      “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;      in pain you shall bring forth children.      Your desire shall be for^£ your husband,      and he shall rule over you.”

The judgment to the woman relates first to her sons and then to her husband….  She would now bear children in pain or toil  (issbonek)  and her desire (tsuqatek) will be for her husband, and he will ‘rule over’ her.

Note the H6093 “Pain” and (issabon) Vs. the “in pain” H6089  (eseb) – Both have the sense of pain, but two different Hebrew words were used….  Note definitions from Strong’s Dictionary and then Strong’s Lexicon.

H 6093.  עִצָּבוֹןʿitstsâbôwn, its-tsaw-bone´; from 6087; worrisomeness, i.e. labor or pain:—sorrow, toil.

H6093עִצָּבֹון[ʿitstsabown /its·tsaw·bone/] n m. From 6087; TWOT 1666e; GK 6779; Three occurrences; AV translates as “sorrow” twice, and “toil” once. 1pain, labour, hardship, sorrow, toil.

H6089.  עֶצֶבʿetseb, eh´-tseb; from 6087; an earthen vessel; usually (painful) toil; also a pang (whether of body or mind):—grievous, idol, labor, sorrow.

H 6089עֶצֶב,עֶצֶב[ʿetseb /eh·tseb/] n m. From 6087; TWOT 1666a, 1667a; GK 6775 and 6776; Seven occurrences; AV translates as “sorrow” three times, “labour” twice, “grievous” once, and “idol” once. 1pain, hurt, toil, sorrow, labour, hardship. 1apain. 1bhurt, offense. 1ctoil, hardship. 2vessel, creation, object. 3(TWOT) idol.

 

Genesis 3:16(ESV)
¹⁶To the woman he said,      “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;      in pain you shall bring forth children.      Your desire shall be for^£ your husband,      and he shall rule over you.”

The judgment to the woman relates first to her sons and then to her husband….  She would now bear children in pain or toil  (issbonek)  and her desire (tsuqatek) will be for her husband, and he will ‘rule over’ her.

1^st – bear children in pain and her desire will be for her husband, and he will ‘rule over’ her. 

The role for woman in chapters 1 & 2 need to be considered.  The woman and her husband were to have enjoyed the blessing of children (1:28) and the harmonious partnership of marriage (2:18, 21-25).  The judgment specifically aims at those two points…   NOW the blessing of a marriage partner and having children has become tainted by the curse. 

Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”

H 8669.  תְּשׁוּקָהt^eshûwqâh, tesh-oo-kaw´; from 7783 in the orig. sense of stretching out after; a longing:—desire.  (t.suqah)  –  “longing” “desire” – is unusual and striking  Different from 3:16 and only occurs in Gen 4:7, SofS 7:10  –  “longing” can refer to physical attraction.  –  “Longing’ carries the sense of a desire to overcome or defeat another. 

Song of Solomon 7:10 I am my beloved’s, and his desire (inclination) (H669)  is for me.

 

Gen. 4:7 –   If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire  (H669) is for you, but you must rule over it.”

If so, the sense of “desiring” in 3:16 should be understood as the wife’s desire to overcome or gain the upper hand over her husband.^[1]  (QUOTE: The Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

This in sharp contrast to the original intent of the man and the woman as ‘one flesh’ and picturing the woman as the ‘helper suitable for him’.  THUS, the fall has affected the relationship of the husband and wife. 

For the woman the penalty is painful labor in childbirth and the consequence of her sin is defeat in her conflict with her husband.

For the man the penalty is painful labor in agriculture and the consequence is defeat in his conflict with the ground.

Curses were against the serpent and the ground – HOWEVER – not against the man and woman, thus implying that the blessing has not been utterly lost.

 

V.17-20 -Man’s judgment

Genesis 3:17-20(ESV)
¹⁷And to Adam he said,      “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife      and have eaten of the tree      of which I commanded you,      ‘You shall not eat of it,’      cursed is the ground because of you;      in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
¹⁸    thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;      and you shall eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹    By the sweat of your face      you shall eat bread,      till you return to the ground,      for out of it you were taken;      for you are dust,      and to dust you shall return.”
²⁰The man called his wife’s name Eve,^£ because she was the mother of all living. 

 

Man could no longer ‘freely eat’ the produce of the land…  “eating” was a theme in Chapters 2 & 3…   In Gen. 1:31 Man could freely eat of the produce of the land   and it was pronounced “very Good”  In Gen 2:16 – “you are free to eat”  

In Chapter 3 it was precisely over the issue of EATING.  The tempter raised doubt about God’s ultimate goodness and care for the man and his wife.  Gen. 3:1-3  –  then in verse 6 when disobedience occurred it was simply described as “she at it”  AND “he ate it”   

It would make sense that in the pronouncement of judgment that God would call attention to the aspect of ‘eating’ in his description of judgment.  V. 17 “ in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life”  –  Gen. 3:17says:
Genesis 3:17(ESV)
¹⁷And to Adam he said,      “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife      and have eaten of the tree      of which I commanded you,      ‘You shall not eat of it,’      cursed is the ground because of you;      in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

 There was much focus on ‘eating’ in the Torah: 1) ‘clean and unclean foods’,  2) ‘regulations for annual feasts to celebrate God’s gift of the ‘good land’.  In Revelation ‘eating’ is mentioned about being with Jesus…
Revelation 19:9(ESV)
⁹And the angel said^£ to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” 

 The reversal state of the land due to sin:

Genesis 3:18(ESV)
¹⁸    thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;      and you shall eat the plants of the field.  
Genesis 3:19(ESV)
¹⁹    By the sweat of your face      you shall eat bread,      till you return to the ground,      for out of it you were taken;      for you are dust,      and to dust you shall return.”

Now man is returned to the ground and the dust he was taken – stressing the verdict of death….

 

Genesis 3:20-21(ESV)
²⁰The man called his wife’s name Eve,^£ because she was the mother of all living. 
²¹And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Two events are presented here that signal a continuing hope for the couple.  There was a hope for the future and reversal of the situation they were placed in because of their transgressions. 

1^st  – He named the woman “Eve” –   Living (“hawwa”) meaning the mother of all living  –  in the Greek (“Zoe”)  Life  – In her body she becomes the source of life…

2^nd – God made “garments of animal skins” –   This was immediately done by God toward the vulnerable couple to provide adequate protection to cover their embarrassment and to preserve them in the new hostile environment to which they will be banished to.   The clothing would act as to be a reminder of their sin against their God and could no longer walk in innocence. 

Illustrated in the “garments” and the clothing for the priestly garments.  They had to be properly clothed before the administration of His service.  The “tunics” for the priests may be intended to recall the state of man and the woman before the fall.  The priests were to enter in to the presence of God at the tabernacle with tunics that God described were to be made.  (Exod. 28:42)

Exod. 28:42-43

You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs.  ⁴³ and they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the Holy Place, lest they bear guilt and die. This shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him.

Entering into the tabernacle (God’s House) – maybe drawing attention to God’s covering the nakedness of the man and the woman.  God’s work of the past and now present to restore man the blessing of his presence and fellowship.

 

Gen. 3:22-24  –  Expelled from the Garden

²² Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” ²³ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

 

The verdict brought a separation from God – from his garden – his presence – they were to be put to death.

Man’s quest was to ‘be like God’ – however the obtained goal proved to be undesirable for man.  May was created like God in the beginning and he still was/is ‘like God’, but no longer with God.   Man happiness does not consist of his being ‘like God’ as much as it does his being ‘with God” and enjoying the blessing of God’s presence. 

Man was put in the garden for ‘worship’ (obdah) and ‘obedience’ (somrah)  – instead man was cast out of the garden “to work (labod) the ground”,  and he is “kept” (lismor) from “the way to the tree of life”. 

 H 5647.  עָבַדʿâbad, aw-bad´; a prim. root; to work (in any sense); by impl. to serve, till, (caus.) enslave, etc.:—× be, keep in bondage, be bondmen, bond-service, compel, do, dress, ear, execute, + husbandman, keep, labour (-ing man), bring to pass, (cause to, make to) serve (-ing, self), (be, become) servant (-s), do (use) service, till (-er), transgress [from margin], (set a) work, be wrought, worshipper.  H5647^[2]

Outside the garden man had to toil the ground in order to get the needed food to sustain their lives.   The garden was a specially prepared habitat, but now he must develop his own garden by working the ground, which is under divine curse. 

The “tree of life” is guarded by the ‘cherubim”   – interesting that the ‘cherubim’ are the guards of the ‘ark of the covenant” the “ark of testimony”  –  The plan of God is that through the covenant can man’s fellowship with God be restored.   This plan of the covenant is to restore man to the stat he enjoyed and for the one who serves God, obeys his will, and enjoys his blessing. 

 

Please consider taking the time to read the following bible translations of Genesis 3:16-21  –  Keep in mind that ‘God punished man but He cursed Satan’.  Today we still are under that punishment until the ‘new heavens and a new earth’ that is promised us.  Isa. 65:17-18 and other scriptural references are quoted below:

 

TEV – The Good News Translation – 2^nd edition –

16 And he said to the woman, “I will increase your trouble in pregnancy and your pain in giving birth. In spite of this, you will still have desire for your husband, yet you will be subject to him.”

17 And he said to the man, “You listened to your wife and ate the fruit which I told you not to eat. Because of what you have done, the ground will be under a curse. You will have to work hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you. It will produce weeds and thorns, and you will have to eat wild plants. ¹⁹You will have to work hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything, until you go back to the soil from which you were formed. You were made from soil, and you will become soil again.”

20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all human beings. ²¹And the Lord God made clothes out of animal skins for Adam and his wife, and he clothed them. ^[1]

 

 

 

The RSV – Revised Standard Version

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing;

in pain you shall bring forth children,

yet your desire shall be for your husband,

and he shall rule over you.” ¹⁷ And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,

and have eaten of the tree

of which I commanded you,

‘You shall not eat of it,’

cursed is the ground because of you;

in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; ¹⁸ thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you;

and you shall eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹ In the sweat of your face

you shall eat bread

till you return to the ground,

for out of it you were taken;

you are dust,

and to dust you shall return.”

 ²⁰ The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. ²¹ And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them.^[2]

 

 

The Message Bible:

         He told the Woman:

                        “I’ll multiply your pains in childbirth;

                              you’ll give birth to your babies in pain.

                        You’ll want to please your husband,

                              but he’ll lord it over you.”

^17–19   He told the Man:

                        “Because you listened to your wife

                              and ate from the tree

                        That I commanded you not to eat from,

                              ‘Don’t eat from this tree,’

                        The very ground is cursed because of you;

                              getting food from the ground

                        Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife;

                              you’ll be working in pain all your life long.

                        The ground will sprout thorns and weeds,

                              you’ll get your food the hard way,

                        Planting and tilling and harvesting,

                              sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk,

                        Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried;

                              you started out as dirt, you’ll end up dirt.”

²⁰       The Man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.

²¹                God made leather clothing for Adam and his wife and dressed them.^[3]

 

 

 

 Today’s New International Version (2005)  (Today’s New International Version. (2005)

 

¹⁶To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;

with pain you will give birth to children.

Your desire will be for your husband,

and he will rule over you.”

¹⁷To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;

through painful toil you will eat of it

all the days of your life.

¹⁸It will produce thorns and thistles for you,

and you will eat the plants of the field.

¹⁹By 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.”

²⁰Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

²¹The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. ^[4]

 

 

The Promise for a New Heavens and a New Earth – Removing the curse from the land and mankind.

Isaiah 65:17-18 (esv)

New Heavens and a New Earth

¹⁷    “For behold, I create new heavens

and a new earth,

       and the former things shall not be remembered

or come into mind.

¹⁸    But be glad and rejoice forever

in that which I create;

       for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,

and her people to be a gladness.

 

Isaiah 66:1-2(ESV)
¹    Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne,      and the earth is my footstool;      what is the house that you would build for me,      and what is the place of my rest?
²    All these things my hand has made,      and so all these things came to be,     declares the Lord.      But this is the one to whom I will look:      he who is humble and contrite in spirit     and trembles at my word.

Isaiah 66:22-23(ESV)
²²    “For as the new heavens and the new earth      that I make      shall remain before me, says the Lord,      so shall your offspring and your name remain.
²³    From new moon to new moon,      and from Sabbath to Sabbath,      all flesh shall come to worship before me,     declares the Lord.

(If time one would find Isaiah 66 a chapter of promise and blessings.)

 

2 Peter 3:11-13(ESV)
¹¹Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 
¹²waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 
¹³But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.