Genesis 3 - Easy To Read Version

¹ The snake was the most clever of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. {The snake wanted to trick the woman.} The snake spoke to the woman and said, “Woman, did God really tell you that you must not eat from any tree in the garden?”

² The woman answered the snake, “{No! God did not say that!} We can eat fruit from the trees in the garden.

³ But there is one tree we must not eat from. God told us, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch that tree or you will die.’”

⁴ But the snake said to the woman, “You will not die.

⁵ God knows that if you eat the fruit from that tree you will learn about good and evil. And then you will be the same as God!”

⁶ The woman saw the tree was beautiful. She saw the fruit was good to eat. And it was exciting that the tree would make her wise. So the woman took fruit from the tree and ate it. Her husband was there with her, so she gave some of the fruit to him and he ate it.

⁷ Then {both the man and the woman changed. It was like} their eyes opened, {and they saw things differently}. They saw that they had no clothes on—they were naked. So they got some fig leaves and sewed them together and wore the fig leaves for clothes.

⁸ During the cool part of the day, the Lord God was walking in the garden. The man and the woman heard him, and they hid among the trees in the garden.

⁹ The Lord God called to the man and said, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ The man said, “I heard you walking in the garden, and I was afraid. I was naked, so I hid.”

¹¹ The Lord God said to the man, “Who told you that you were naked? {What caused you to be ashamed?} Did you eat fruit from that special tree? I told you not to eat from that tree!”

¹² The man said, “The woman you made for me gave me fruit from that tree. So I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the snake,

¹⁵ I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Your children and her children will be enemies. You will bite her child’s foot, but he will crush your head.”

¹⁶ Then the Lord God said to the woman,

¹⁷ Then the Lord God said to the man,

¹⁸ The ground will grow thorns and weeds for you. And you will have to eat the plants that grow wild in the fields. [19]

¹⁹ You will work hard for your food, until your face is covered with sweat. You will work hard until the day you die. And then you will become dust again. I used dust to make you. And when you die you will become dust again.”

²⁰ Adam [20] named his wife Eve. [21] Adam gave her this name because Eve is the mother of every person who ever lived.

²¹ The Lord God used animal skins and made some clothes for the man and his wife. Then he put the clothes on them.

²² The Lord God said, “Look, the man has become like us—he knows about good and evil. And now the man might take the fruit from the tree of life. If the man eats that fruit, he will live forever.”

²³ So the Lord God forced the man to leave the garden of Eden. Adam [22] was forced to go and work the ground he was made from.

²⁴ The Lord God forced the man to leave the garden. Then he put Cherub angels [23] at the entrance to the garden to protect it. The Lord God also put a sword of fire there. This sword flashed around and around guarding the way to the tree of life.