The Fall
1 Now the kserpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, l“Did God actually say, m‘You1 shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, n“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be olike God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman psaw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,2 she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were qnaked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God rwalking in the garden in the cool3 of the day, and the man and his wife shid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”4 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman twhom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent udeceived me, and I ate.”
14 The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and vdust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring5 and wher offspring;
xhe shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your ydesire shall be for6 your husband,
and zhe shall rule over you.”
17 And to Adam he said,
a“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have beaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
ccursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for dout of it you were taken;
for you are edust,
and to dust you shall return.”
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that mevery intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
No One Is Righteous
9 What then? Are we Jews1 any better off?2 No, not at all. For we have already charged that ball, both cJews and dGreeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
e“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 f“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
g“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 h“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 i“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 j“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Death in Adam, Life in Christ
12 Therefore, hjust as sin came into the world ithrough one man, and jdeath kthrough sin, and so death spread to all men1 because lall sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before mthe law was given, but nsin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, owho was a ptype of the one who was to come.
