Genesis 3-5
Living Bible
3 The serpent was the craftiest of all the creatures the Lord God had made. So the serpent came to the woman. “Really?” he asked. “None of the fruit in the garden? God says you mustn’t eat any of it?”
2-3 “Of course we may eat it,” the woman told him. “It’s only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not to eat. God says we mustn’t eat it or even touch it, or we will die.”
4 “That’s a lie!” the serpent hissed. “You’ll not die! 5 God knows very well that the instant you eat it you will become like him, for your eyes will be opened—you will be able to distinguish good from evil!”
6 The woman was convinced. How lovely and fresh looking it was! And it would make her so wise! So she ate some of the fruit and gave some to her husband, and he ate it too. 7 And as they ate it, suddenly they became aware of their nakedness, and were embarrassed. So they strung fig leaves together to cover themselves around the hips.
8 That evening they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden; and they hid themselves among the trees. 9 The Lord God called to Adam, “Why are you hiding?”[a]
10 And Adam replied, “I heard you coming and didn’t want you to see me naked. So I hid.”
11 “Who told you you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten fruit from the tree I warned you about?”
12 “Yes,” Adam admitted, “but it was the woman you gave me who brought me some, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “How could you do such a thing?”
“The serpent tricked me,” she replied.
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “This is your punishment: You are singled out from among all the domestic and wild animals of the whole earth—to be cursed. You shall grovel in the dust as long as you live, crawling along on your belly. 15 From now on you and the woman will be enemies, as will your offspring and hers. You will strike his heel, but he will crush your head.”
16 Then God said to the woman, “You shall bear children in intense pain and suffering; yet even so, you shall welcome your husband’s affections, and he shall be your master.”
17 And to Adam, God said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit when I told you not to, I have placed a curse upon the soil. All your life you will struggle to extract a living from it. 18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you, and you shall eat its grasses. 19 All your life you will sweat to master it, until your dying day. Then you will return to the ground from which you came. For you were made from the ground, and to the ground you will return.”
20 The man named his wife Eve (meaning “The life-giving one”),[b] for he said, “She shall become the mother of all mankind”; 21 and the Lord God clothed Adam and his wife with garments made from skins of animals.
22 Then the Lord said, “Now that the man has become as we are, knowing good from bad, what if he eats the fruit of the Tree of Life and lives forever?” 23 So the Lord God banished him forever from the Garden of Eden, and sent him out to farm the ground from which he had been taken. 24 Thus God expelled him, and placed mighty angels at the east of the Garden of Eden, with a flaming sword to guard the entrance to the Tree of Life.
4 Then Adam had sexual intercourse with Eve his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to a son, Cain (meaning “I have created”). For, as she said, “With God’s help, I have created a man!” 2 Her next child was his brother, Abel.
Abel became a shepherd, while Cain was a farmer. 3 At harvest time Cain brought the Lord a gift of his farm produce, 4 and Abel brought the fatty cuts of meat from his best lambs, and presented them to the Lord. And the Lord accepted Abel’s offering, 5 but not Cain’s. This made Cain both dejected and very angry, and his face grew dark with fury.
6 “Why are you angry?” the Lord asked him. “Why is your face so dark with rage? 7 It can be bright with joy if you will do what you should! But if you refuse to obey, watch out. Sin is waiting to attack you, longing to destroy you. But you can conquer it!”
8 One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were together there, Cain attacked and killed his brother.
9 But afterwards the Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother? Where is Abel?”
“How should I know?” Cain retorted. “Am I supposed to keep track of him wherever he goes?”
10 But the Lord said, “Your brother’s blood calls to me from the ground. What have you done? 11 You are hereby banished from this ground which you have defiled with your brother’s blood. 12 No longer will it yield crops for you, even if you toil on it forever! From now on you will be a fugitive and a tramp upon the earth, wandering from place to place.”
13 Cain replied to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 For you have banished me from my farm and from you, and made me a fugitive and a tramp; and everyone who sees me will try to kill me.”
15 The Lord replied, “They won’t kill you, for I will give seven times your punishment to anyone who does.” Then the Lord put an identifying mark on Cain as a warning not to kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
17 Then Cain’s wife conceived and presented him with a baby son named Enoch; so when Cain founded a city, he named it Enoch, after his son.
18 Enoch was the father of[c] Irad; Irad was the father of Mehujael; Mehujael was the father of Methusael; Methusael was the father of Lamech.
19 Lamech married two wives—Adah and Zillah. 20 To Adah was born a baby named Jabal. He became the first of the cattlemen and those living in tents. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal, the first musician—the inventor of the harp and flute.[d] 22 To Lamech’s other wife, Zillah, was born Tubal-cain. He opened the first foundry[e] forging instruments of bronze and iron.
23 One day Lamech said to Adah and Zillah, “Listen to me, my wives. I have killed a youth who attacked and wounded me. 24 If anyone who kills Cain will be punished seven times, anyone taking revenge against me for killing that youth should be punished seventy-seven times!”
25 Later on Eve gave birth to another son and named him Seth (meaning “Granted”); for, as Eve put it, “God has granted me another son for the one Cain killed.” 26 When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. It was during his lifetime that men first began to call themselves “the Lord’s people.”[f]
5 Here is a list of some of the descendants of Adam[g]—the man who was like God from the day of his creation. 2 God created man and woman and blessed them, and called them Man from the start.
3-5 Adam: Adam was 130 years old when his son Seth was born,[h] the very image of his father in every way. After Seth was born, Adam lived another 800 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 930.
6-8 Seth: Seth was 105 years old when his son Enosh was born. Afterwards he lived another 807 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 912.
9-11 Enosh: Enosh was ninety years old when his son Kenan was born. Afterwards he lived another 815 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 905.
12-14 Kenan: Kenan was seventy years old when his son Mahalalel was born. Afterwards he lived another 840 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 910.
15-17 Mahalalel: Mahalalel was sixty-five years old when his son Jared was born. Afterwards he lived 830 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 895.
18-20 Jared: Jared was 162 years old when his son Enoch was born. Afterwards he lived another 800 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 962.
21-24 Enoch: Enoch was sixty-five years old when his son Methuselah was born. Afterwards he lived another 300 years in fellowship with God, and produced sons and daughters; then, when he was 365, and in constant touch with God, he disappeared, for God took him!
25-27 Methuselah: Methuselah was 187 years old when his son Lamech was born; afterwards he lived another 782 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 969.
28-31 Lamech: Lamech was 182 years old when his son Noah was born. Lamech named him Noah (meaning “Relief”) because he said, “He will bring us relief from the hard work of farming this ground which God has cursed.” Afterwards Lamech lived 595 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 777.
32 Noah: Noah was 500 years old and had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Footnotes
- Genesis 3:9 Why are you hiding? or “Where are you?”
- Genesis 3:20 Eve (meaning “The life-giving one”). Many Hebrew names are based on puns. In this instance the Hebrew word for Eve sounds similar to a Hebrew word that means “life-giving.”
- Genesis 4:18 Enoch was the father of, or “the ancestor of,” and so also in the remainder of the verse.
- Genesis 4:21 the inventor of the harp and flute, literally, “the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe.”
- Genesis 4:22 He opened the first foundry, literally, “He was the father of all metal workers in bronze and iron.”
- Genesis 4:26 It was during . . . “the Lord’s people,” literally, “This man was the first to invoke the name of Jehovah.”
- Genesis 5:1 Here is a list of some of the descendants of Adam, literally, “This is the roll of Adam’s descendants.” the man who was like God, literally, “in the likeness of God.”
- Genesis 5:3 when his son Seth was born, or by Hebrew usage, “when his son, the ancestor (of Seth) was born.” So also in vv. 6, 9, 15, 18, 21, 25, 28, 32. the very image of his father in every way, literally, “in his own likeness, after his image.” After Seth was born, or by Hebrew usage, “After this ancestor of Seth was born.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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