The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her.

So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.

And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you.

All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.”

So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made.

After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.