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,

16 To the woman he said,

17 And to Adam he said,

20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.⁷ 21 ^fAnd the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

22 Then the Lord God said, ^g“Behold, the man has become ^hlike one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the ⁱtree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to ^jwork the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Cain and Abel

1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten⁸ a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the ^kfruit of the ground, 4 ^land Abel also brought of the ^mfirstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted?⁹ And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its ⁿdesire is for¹⁰ you, and you must rule over it.”

8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother.¹¹ And when they were in the field, Cain rose up ^oagainst his brother Abel and ^pkilled him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of ^qyour brother’s blood is ^rcrying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are ^scursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you ^twork the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.¹² 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be ^uhidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him ^vsevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. 16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod,¹³ east of Eden.

17 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. 19 And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20 Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. 22 Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

23 Lamech said to his wives:

25 And Adam knew his wife ^yagain, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed¹⁴ for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” 26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to ^zcall upon the name of the Lord.

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—

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

1 ^vWhat shall we say then? ^wAre we to continue in sin that ^xgrace may abound? 2 By no means! ^yHow can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been ^zbaptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were ^aburied therefore with him by baptism into death, ^bin order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in ^cnewness of life.

5 For if we have been ^dunited with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our ^eold self¹ was ^fcrucified with him in order that the ^gbody of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be ^henslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free² from sin. 8 Now ⁱif we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being ^jraised from the dead, will ^knever die again; ^ldeath ^mno longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, ⁿonce for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves ^odead to sin and ^palive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its ^qpassions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but ^rpresent yourselves to God as those who have been brought ^sfrom death to life, and your members to God as instruments ^tfor righteousness. 14 For sin will have no ^udominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? ^vAre we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,³ you are slaves of the one whom you obey, ^weither of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once ^xslaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set ^yfree from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking ^zin human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to ^asanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But ^bwhat fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the ^cfruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 ^dFor the wages of sin is death, but the ^efree gift of God is eternal ^flife in Christ Jesus our Lord.