NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible CBSB_Digital Sampler | Page 15
Genesis 4:3 | 13
The woman said, “The serpent deceived
me, i and I ate.”
14 So the L ord God said to the ser
pent,
“Because you have done this,
“Cursed j are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust k
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring a l and
hers; m
he will crush b your head, n
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To
3:13 i 2Co 11:3;
1Ti 2:14
3:14 j Dt 28:15-
20 k Isa 65:25;
Mic 7:17
3:15 l Jn 8:44;
Ac 13:10;
1Jn 3:8
m Isa 7:14;
Mt 1:23;
Rev 12:17
n Ro 16:20;
Heb 2:14
3:16 o 1Co 11:3;
Eph 5:22
3:17 p Ge 5:29;
Ro 8:20-22
q Job 5:7; 14:1;
Ecc 2:23
3:18 r Ps 104:14
the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing
very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth
to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you. o ”
17
To Adam he said, “Because you lis
tened to your wife and ate fruit from the
tree a bout which I commanded you, ‘You
must not eat from it,’
“Cursed p is the ground because of
you;
through painful toil you will eat
food from it
all the days of your life. q
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for
you,
and you will eat the plants of the
field. r
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food s
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.” t
20 Adam c
named his wife Eve, d because
she would become the mother of all the
living.
21 The L ord God made garments of skin
for Adam and his wife and c lothed them.
22 And the L ord God said, “The man has
now become like one of us, knowing good
and evil. He must not be allowed to reach
out his hand and take also from the tree
of life u and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the
L ord God banished him from the Garden
of Eden v to work the g round w from w
hich
he had been taken. 24 After he drove the
man out, he placed on the east side e of the
Garden of Eden cherubim x and a flaming
sword y flashing back and forth to guard
the way to the tree of life. z
Cain and Abel
Adam c made love to his wife Eve, and
she became pregnant and gave b
irth to
Cain. f She said, “With the help of the L ord
I have b
rought forth g a man.” 2 Later she
gave b
irth to his brother Abel. a
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked
the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought
some of the f ruits of the soil as an offering
4
3:19 s 2Th 3:10
t Ge 2:7;
Ps 90:3; 104:29;
Ecc 12:7
3:22
u Rev 22:14
3:23 v Ge 2:8
w Ge 4:2
3:24 x Ex 25:18-
22 y Ps 104:4
z Ge 2:9
4:2 a Lk 11:51
3:14 God said to the serpent, “ . . . Cursed are you.” The Egyp-
tian Pyramid Texts were designed to aid the pharaohs of
the Old Kingdom on their journey to the afterlife. Among
the over 700 utterances are several dozen spells and
curses on snakes that may impede the king’s progress.
These utterances contain phrases that are reminiscent of
the curse on the serpent in ch. 3. crawl on your belly. This
statement is paralleled by frequent spells in the Egyptian
Pyramid Texts that call on snakes to lie down, fall down,
get down, or crawl away. Another spell says that he should
“go with your face on the path.” These suggest that when
God tells the serpent that he will crawl on his bel