Genesis 3

A crafty serpent questions God’s word, and the man and woman eat the one fruit God had forbidden. Shame, hiding, blame and judgment follow, and they are driven from Eden. Yet God still seeks them, promises a coming victory over the serpent, and clothes them with his own hands.

Genesis 3:1

The serpent enters and begins by twisting what God said. He turns a generous gift into a harsh ban: ‘any tree’. He plants a doubt about God’s goodness. Later Scripture shows a darker enemy behind the serpent’s voice.

BSA: crafty (“subtle, prudent”): The same quality can be wisdom or cunning; here it is used to mislead.

Hebrew: עָרוּם (ʿārûm, H6175) — “shrewd, cunning.” The word sounds almost like the word for ’naked’ in 2:25. The writer links the serpent’s shrewdness with the humans’ coming exposure.

See also: Revelation 12:9.

Genesis 3:2-3

Eve answers well, stressing how much they may eat. But she adds ‘or touch it’, which God had not said. Even a small addition to God’s word can make it feel heavier and harsher. She still states the penalty: death.

BSA: die (“cease to exist, experience spiritual death”): Death in Scripture means separation from life and from God, not only the stopping of the body.

Genesis 3:4-5

The serpent flatly contradicts God and then questions his motives. He claims God is holding something back. The half-truth is that they would know good and evil. The lie is that this would make them free rather than ruined.

BSA: knowing (“perceiving, understanding”): The serpent offers knowledge gained by experience, which here means experiencing evil, not simple learning.

See also: John 8:44.

Genesis 3:6

Eve looks, desires and takes. Appetite, beauty and the wish to be wise all pull her one way. Adam was with her and eats too, saying nothing. Two people choose their own way over God’s clear word.

BSA: desirable (“to be desired, longed for”): Desire itself is not the sin; it becomes sin when it overrules God’s word. took (“grasped, seized”): The verb shows a reaching grab for what was not given.

Hebrew: נֶחְמָד (neḥmād, H2530) — “desirable, to be coveted.” This comes from the Hebrew root for coveting. It shows the fruit stirring a longing that overruled trust in God.

See also: 1 John 2:16.

Genesis 3:7

Their eyes are opened, but not to godlike wisdom. They see only their own shame. Innocence is gone. They try to cover themselves with fig leaves, the first human attempt to fix guilt with their own effort.

BSA: naked (“without clothes, exposed”): The sense is more than bare skin; they feel uncovered and vulnerable before each other and God.

Genesis 3:8

The first thing they hear is God walking in the garden. Once his voice meant friendship; now it makes them hide. Sin makes people run from the One they most need. Hiding among the trees cannot work.

BSA: presence (“face, before”): They once lived face to face with God; now they dodge his face.

Hebrew: מִתְהַלֵּךְ (mithallēk, H1980) — “walking to and fro.” The same verb is later used of Enoch and Noah walking with God. It pictures God moving among them as a friend.

Genesis 3:9

God is not unaware of where Adam is. He asks so that Adam must come out and answer. The first question in the Bible after the fall is God seeking the lost, not the lost seeking God.

BSA: called out (“to summon, to invoke”): God personally calls them forward, inviting a response.

Hebrew: אַיֶּכָּה (ʾayyekkâ, H335) — “Where are you?.” This single Hebrew word asks about more than location. It asks how things stand between the man and God.

See also: Luke 19:10.

Genesis 3:10

Adam admits fear and shame but does not yet admit disobedience. He says he hid because he was naked, as if that were the whole reason. Guilt makes people speak around the real problem.

BSA: afraid (“stood in awe, feared”): This is now dread, not the reverent awe of a friend.

Genesis 3:11

God’s questions lead Adam to the truth. If he knows he is naked, something has changed. God names the one command broken. He is not discovering the sin but giving Adam a chance to confess it.

BSA: Who (“told thee, declared to thee”): The question points to a new source of knowledge that had come from disobedience.

Genesis 3:12

Adam does not confess. He blames Eve, and in a way God himself: ’the woman whom You gave me’. Sin quickly turns into excuse-making. Yet he does state the fact: ‘I ate it’.

BSA: gave (“to be with, entrusted to”): Adam twists a gift of companionship into an accusation.

Genesis 3:13

God asks the woman what she has done. She also passes the blame, though what she says is true: the serpent deceived her. Neither of them simply says ‘I sinned’. Deception explains the fall but does not erase responsibility.

BSA: deceived (“or beguiled”): She was led astray by a plausible, attractive lie.

See also: 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14.

Genesis 3:14

God does not question the serpent; he pronounces judgment. The creature is brought low and made a picture of defeat. The man and woman are not cursed directly here, but the serpent is.

BSA: cursed (“to be under a divine ban, execrated”): The serpent is set apart under God’s judgment.

Genesis 3:15

In the middle of judgment comes the first promise of rescue. Conflict will run between the serpent’s offspring and the woman’s. One of her descendants will strike a fatal blow to the head, though he will be wounded in the heel. Christians see this as pointing to Christ.

BSA: enmity (“hostility”): God sets a lasting opposition between the woman’s line and the serpent. crush (“bruise, overwhelm”): One blow is deadly to the head; the wound to the heel is real but not final.

Hebrew: זֶרַע (zeraʿ, H2233) — “seed, offspring.” This word is singular but can mean a whole line of descendants. The promise looks to a people and to one who stands at their head.

See also: Romans 16:20; Galatians 4:4.

Genesis 3:16

The woman’s judgment touches her deepest joys: childbearing and marriage. Pain will come with bringing life into the world. The harmony of husband and wife will be strained, with longing and rule pulling against each other.

BSA: desire (“strong longing, romantic love”): It speaks of a strong pull toward her husband, now bound up with the strain of a fallen world. rule (“have power over, govern”): This describes broken, painful dominance, not the partnership of Eden.

Hebrew: תְּשׁוּקָה (tešûqâ, H8669) — “longing, urge.” This rare word is also used in 4:7 of sin crouching to master Cain. Believers read its meaning here in different ways.

Genesis 3:17

Adam is judged for listening to his wife’s voice over God’s. The ground, which he was to tend, now resists him. Work was good before the fall; now it becomes hard, tiring labor. The curse lands on the earth because of man.

BSA: toil (“hard labor, painful work”): Work now carries pain and frustration.

See also: Romans 8:20-21.

Genesis 3:18-19

Thorns and sweat mark the rest of Adam’s life. He will still eat, but only at a cost, until death returns him to the soil. God had formed him from dust, so death is the sad reversal of creation.

BSA: thorns (“prickly growths, thorny plants”): The earth now produces pain along with food. dust (“dry earth”): It reminds him how humble and fragile his origin is.

Hebrew: עָפָר (ʿāp̄ār, H6083) — “dust, loose earth.” This is the same word for the dust God used to form Adam in 2:7. The one who was made from dust is told that dust will reclaim him.

See also: Ecclesiastes 12:7; Psalm 103:14.

Genesis 3:20

Under a death sentence, Adam names his wife Eve, meaning life. It is an act of faith in God’s promise that life will go on through her offspring. Hope is found even after judgment.

BSA: Eve (“life”): The name looks forward to life in spite of the coming death.

Hebrew: חַוָּה (Ḥawwâ, H2332) — “life-giver, living one.” The name is related to the Hebrew word for ’live’. It shows Adam trusting in the promise of life.

Genesis 3:21

God himself makes clothing for them from animal skins. It is stronger and more fitting than fig leaves. Something had to die to cover them. Christians see a picture of God’s costly provision for human shame.

BSA: garments (“tunics or coats”): These are durable clothing, made by God for life outside the garden.

Hebrew: כָּתְנוֹת (kotnôt, H3801) — “tunics, long garments.” The word names real, lasting clothing. It shows God caring for them even while he judges them.

See also: Isaiah 61:10.

Genesis 3:22

God speaks with sorrow, not triumph. The man has gained the knowledge of evil by experience, and now must not live forever in this state. The unfinished sentence gives a sense of grief. Exile is also a mercy.

BSA: forever (“for all eternity”): To live endlessly in a fallen state would lock sin and suffering in place.

Genesis 3:23-24

The man and woman are sent out of Eden, east of the garden, and God sets guards at the way back. The way to the tree of life is closed to them. Yet the story keeps pointing to a day when that way will be opened again.

BSA: banished (“sent forth, expelled”): They are sent out of God’s close presence, though not out of his care. cherubim (“angelic beings, guardians”): They stand as guards over what is holy.

Hebrew: כְּרֻבִים (kerubim, H3742) — “cherubim, winged guardians.” Cherubim later appear over the ark in the tabernacle. That connects the guarded garden with the place where God meets his people.

See also: Revelation 22:14; 1 Corinthians 15:22.