God Curses the Serpent and the Ground, the Man, and the Woman

Genesis 3:8–19

Biblical Period

8They heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of day; and the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9The Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10He replied, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 11Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the tree from which I had forbidden you to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman You put at my side—she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” 13And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done!” The woman replied, “The serpent duped me, and I ate.” 14Then the Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you did this,
More cursed shall you be
Than all cattle
And all the wild beasts:
On your belly shall you crawl
And dirt shall you eat
All the days of your life.
15I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your offspring and hers;
They shall strike at your head,
And you shall strike at their heel.”

16And to the woman He said,

“I will make most severe
Your pangs in childbearing;
In pain shall you bear children.
Yet your urge shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”

17To Adam He said, “Because you did as your wife said and ate of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’

Cursed be the ground because of you;
By toil shall you eat of it
All the days of your life:
18Thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you.
But your food shall be the grasses of the field;
19By the sweat of your brow
Shall you get bread to eat,
Until you return to the ground—
For from it you were taken.
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”

Credits

Reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

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