The snake tricked the woman

1You know, God made lots of animals, but the snake was more smart than all the other animals. He was really smart and tricky. One day, the snake went to the woman and said to her, “Did God say, ‘You can’t eat fruit from any of the trees in the garden’? Is that true?”

2The woman said, “No, that’s not true. We can eat fruit from those trees there in the garden.

3God said that there is only one tree that we can’t eat from. We can’t eat any fruit that comes from one of the trees that is in the middle of the garden. God will not even let us touch that tree. He said that if we eat fruit from that tree, we will die.”

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

5God knows what will happen if you eat fruit from that tree. He knows that if you eat fruit from that tree, you will know more things, like God himself. You will know if the things you do are good, or if they are bad.”

The man and the woman did the wrong thing

6The woman looked at that tree. It was pretty, and the fruit on that tree looked really good to eat, and she reckoned that if she eats some of that fruit, she will think properly. So the woman got some of that fruit, and she ate it, and she gave some of it to her husband, and he ate that fruit too.

7Straight away, the man and the woman knew more things. They knew that they were naked, and they felt shame. They wanted to make clothes to cover up their naked bodies, so they picked some big leaves from a tree and sewed the leaves together to make some clothes.

The man and the woman tried to hide from God

8Later on, in the cool part of the day, the man and the woman heard God walking in the garden. So they got behind some trees in the garden to hide from God.

9God called out to the man, “Where are you?”

10The man said, “I heard you walking in the garden, and I was frightened, because I’m naked. So I hid from you.”

11God asked the man, “How do you know that you are naked? Did you eat some of that fruit from the tree that I told you not to eat from?”

12The man said, “Yes, but it was the woman that you put here with me, she gave me fruit from that tree, so I ate it.”

13Then God said to the woman, “Why did you do that bad thing?” The woman said, “That snake tricked me. That’s the reason why I ate that fruit.”

God judged the snake

14Then God said, “Snake, you did the wrong thing, so I will curse you. I will not curse the other animals, but I will curse all you snakes. From now on, you are going to crawl around on your bellies. You will always be down on the ground in the dirt.

15The woman’s kids will hate you, and so will all their kids, and all the people that will be born later on. People will always be your enemies. And Snake, your kids will hate the woman’s kids, and so will all the snake mob that will be born later on. You snake mob will always be the people’s enemies. They will hit your heads, and you will bite their feet.”

God judged the woman

16Then God said to the woman, “I’m going to give you a lot of trouble. You are going to have a lot of pain whenever you have a baby. It will hurt you a lot. But you will really want to have a husband, and your husband will be your boss.”

God judged the man

17Then God said to the man, “I told you not to eat any fruit from one of the trees in the middle of the garden, but you listened to your wife, and you ate that fruit. So I will curse the ground and make it bad for you. It will never be easy for you to get your food from the plants in the ground any more. The ground will have lots of rubbish plants and prickles in it.

19You will work very hard to get your food, so you will get hot, and you will sweat a lot. And later on, you will die. I made you from the dirt, and after you die, your body will turn back into dirt.”

God hunted Adam and Eve out of Eden

20Adam’s wife was the first woman, and all the people in the world came from her. So Adam gave her the name Eve. That name means somebody that gives life.

21God made some clothes from animal skins for Adam and his wife.

22After that, God said, “These people are like us now. They know what things are good, and what things are bad. We have to stop them, so they will not eat fruit from the other tree in the middle of the garden, the tree that makes people stay alive. If they eat that fruit, they will live for ever.”

23So God hunted them out of the garden. To get food, they had to dig the ground and grow plants. You know, God made that man out of the ground, and after they left the garden, that man had to dig that same ground.

24After God hunted them out of the garden, he made sure that they couldn’t get back. He put some of his angel workers as guards just outside the east side of the garden in Eden. And he put a long knife there with them. That knife kept on moving around all the time, and it looked like it was on fire. Those angel workers and that long knife, they kept everyone away from that tree that makes people stay alive.