The LORD had said to Abram, “…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:1,3
A Promise
Let’s imagine the life of Abram—this famous figure from the Bible. In our imagination, it’s easy to presume God is coming down every other day to perform a dramatic miracle. It’s easy to picture Abram living a life bursting with high drama, a John Williams soundtrack swelling in the background. And because you and I already know how everything turns out, it’s easy to suppose that, somehow, Abram does too.
These presumptions, of course, are wrong. Ninety-nine percent of Abram’s life had no high drama at all. It was mundane, ordinary, filled with problems, filled with headaches—those made by others and those of his own making—filled with the logistics of finding food and water for his flocks and herds, filled with the complications of caring for his not-always-happy family. And Abram did not have a crystal-clear vision on how everything was going to turn out.
All he had was a promise. The Lord promised to bless him. The Lord promised to take care of him. The Lord promised to do wonderful things through him. And most of all, the Lord promised that, through Abram, he would bring the Savior into the world.
And that was it. That’s what Abram had. Throughout his most ordinary life, Abram possessed an extraordinary promise from God.
With few exceptions, our lives are not lives of high drama. The London Symphony does not follow us around playing a movie score. Our lives contain much that is mundane, ordinary, filled with trouble, bouts of pain, and unresolved problems that need our management. It’s part of living in a broken world—a world broken by your sin and mine.
And all we have is a promise. A promise that the Lord will bless. A promise that the Lord will take care of us. A promise that the Lord will do wonderful things through us.
But here’s the thing. Such a promise is more than enough. It’s more than enough because it’s a promise sealed in the blood of Jesus Christ, the very blood that has washed our sins away.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, when the mundane problems of my life overwhelm me, remind me of the extraordinary promise I possess in you. Amen.
The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” Genesis 12:1
Leaving
Leaving is hard. You empty out your home until it’s nothing but vacant rooms. Once you’re on the road, the rhythms and routines of your old life cease to exist. And when you reach your destination, you know that, for a while, you and your family are going to be the new people—the people no one knows.
When Abram had to leave with his family, however, his sources of stress were far worse. At that time, leaving your homeland meant more than leaving the place where you grew up. It meant leaving your sense of identity. It meant leaving those who knew you and your family through generations of shared stories, traditions, inside jokes. It meant leaving a place where you knew the people you could count on.
Abram left all that—for what? Permanent camping. Living in a tent. Uncertainty. Unknowns. Always the stranger. Never fitting in. Humanly speaking, that’s what Abram had for the rest of his life.
But leaving the familiar happens to you and me, too. We leave the carefree days of school, when easy laughter with friends was the norm. Many of us have had to leave a workplace where we felt appreciated. Through illness or injury or age, many of us have had to leave behind the days when our bodies were quick and strong. And when death strikes, many of us have had to leave behind those moments when we were never alone for the evening meal.
Leaving is hard. Thankfully, Abram had the LORD. He had the One who would already be there, waiting for him, when his future arrived. He had the One who would be his constant. He had the One who would never change. He had the One who would keep his every promise. He had the One who would bring to Abram a kind of fulfillment and joy he could not even imagine. All this Abram possessed through faith in the promise of a Savior from sin.
You and I have the same.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, when I leave the familiar, remind me that you never leave. Amen.
[Jesus said] “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” John 3:14
A Sure Cure
Bronze has been known to cure snake bites. At least it did in 1500 B.C.
God’s people figured their God was taking longer than he should to get them from Egypt to the Promised Land. So, they complained about his leadership, just like they had been complaining for the last forty years. This time, God allowed them to experience a little bit of life without him.
Immediately poisonous snakes in the wilderness started to bite people, and many died. The people were sorry for their sinful disobedience against God and pleaded for the snakes to be taken away.
God directed Moses to make a snake out of bronze and hang it on a pole. God promised, “Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live” (Numbers 21:8).
It seemed ridiculous, but it worked. Snake-bitten people who looked at the bronze snake did not die. How could bronze be an antidote for venom? God’s promise made that piece of bronze cure a snake bite.
We have our own “snake bites.” We lose our temper and hurt the people we love. We trade news about people we know—news that wounds reputations.
Make no mistake—these “snake bites” are more deadly than those snakes in the wilderness. Our sinful disobedience leads to eternal death in hell.
Our heavenly Father gives us a stronger cure than bronze. He put his Son on a pole—a cross. God promises that his death takes away the poison of sin. By looking at Jesus and believing in him, we will not die but live forever in heaven.
Jesus, the Son of Man, was lifted up on a cross. Because of him, your sins are forgiven. Because of him, you have life with God—now and forever!
Prayer:
Jesus, thank you for being the sure cure for my sins. Amen.
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20 Noah built an altar to the Lord and took from every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasant aroma. The Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the soil anymore because of man, for the thoughts he forms in his heart are evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike every living thing, as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
God’s Covenant With the Earth
Genesis 9
1 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 Every animal on the earth and every bird in the sky will fear you and dread you. Everything that swarms on the ground and all the fish in the sea are handed over to you. 3 Every living, moving thing will be food for you. I have given everything to you, just as I gave you the green plants. 4 But flesh that has the blood (which is its life) still in it, you shall not eat. 5 In fact, I will hold each animal and each person responsible for your lifeblood. I will hold each man responsible for the life of his brother. 6 Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for God made man in his own image.
7 “But you, be fruitful and multiply. Increase abundantly on the earth, and multiply on it.”
8 God said to Noah and to his sons, who were with him, 9 “Listen, I will now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with everything with you that has the breath of life: with the birds, with the livestock, and with every wild animal that is on the earth with you, with everything that went out of the ark, even with every wild animal on the earth. 11 I will establish my covenant with you: Never again will all living creatures [1] be cut off by the waters of a flood. Neither will there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 God also said, “This is the sign of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you that I am giving for all generations to come. 13 I have set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be the sign of a covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring a cloud over the earth and the rainbow is seen in the cloud, 15 I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of every sort, [2] and the waters will never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow will be in the cloud. I will look at it so that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
The Repopulation of the Earth
18 The sons of Noah who went out from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these, people spread out over the whole earth.
20 Noah began to be a man of the soil and planted a vineyard. 21 He drank some of the wine and got drunk. He lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it over their shoulders. They went in backwards and covered the nakedness of their father. They faced backwards, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him. 25 He said:
A curse on Canaan! He will be the lowest of servants to his brothers.
26 Then he said:
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! Let Canaan be his servant. 27 May God enlarge Japheth. Let him dwell in the tents of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant.
28 Noah lived 350 years after the flood. 29 All the days of Noah were 950 years. Then he died.
1 The Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and your entire household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 From every clean animal take with you seven pairs, [1] a male and his female. From the animals that are not clean, take two, a male and his female. 3 Also from the ⎣clean⎦ birds of the sky take seven and seven, male and female, ⎣and of all the unclean birds, one pair, a male and a female⎦ [2] to keep their offspring alive on the face of the whole earth. 4 In seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. Every living thing that I have made, I will wipe off the face of the earth.”
5 Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him.
The Flood
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood [3] came, and water covered the earth.
7 Noah went into the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the waters of the flood. 8 Clean animals, animals that are not clean, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground 9 went into the ark with Noah two by two (male and female), just as God had commanded Noah.
10 After seven days, the waters of the flood came on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that very day, all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates [4] of the sky were opened. 12 The rain came down on the earth for forty days and forty nights.
13 On that same day Noah, Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons along with them entered the ark. 14 They went in with every animal according to its kind, all the livestock according to their kinds, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and everything that flies according to its kind, flying birds of every sort. 15 Pairs of all the animals [5] that have the breath of life in them went to Noah in the ark. 16 A male and female of each animal that breathes went in, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut Noah in.
17 The flood kept coming on the earth for forty days. The waters became deeper and lifted up the ark until it floated high above the earth. 18 The water kept increasing and overwhelmed the earth, and the ark was carried along on the surface of the water. 19 The water overwhelmed the earth. All the high mountains that were under the entire sky were covered. 20 The waters rose more than twenty feet above the mountains and covered them. 21 All living creatures [6] that moved on the earth perished, including birds, livestock, wild animals, every creeping thing that crawls on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything that breathed the breath of life through its nostrils, that is, everything that was on the dry land, died. 23 Every living thing that was on the face of the earth was wiped out, including mankind, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They all were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, as well as those who were with him in the ark. 24 The waters overwhelmed the earth for one hundred fifty days.
Genesis 8
1 God remembered Noah, as well as all the animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. So God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were also closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained. 3 The waters kept receding from the earth. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had decreased. 4 In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters receded continuously until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.
6 Then at the end of forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark. 7 He sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground, 9 but the dove found no place to rest its foot, and it returned to him in the ark, because there was water on the surface of the whole earth. Noah reached out his hand, took the dove, and brought it back to him in the ark. 10 He waited another seven days. Then he sent the dove out of the ark again. 11 The dove came back to him at evening, and there in its mouth was an olive leaf it had just plucked. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 12 He waited another seven days and sent the dove out again. This time it did not return to him anymore.
13 And so in the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked out. He saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
15 God spoke to Noah. He said, 16 “Go out of the ark—you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing of every sort that is with you, all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may swarm over the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
18 Noah went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives along with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever swarms on the earth went out of the ship, species by species. [7]
Footnotes
Genesis 7:2 Literally by sevens. There is a difference of opinion whether seven pairs of each clean animal were to be taken onboard or seven of each clean animal: three pairs and one extra for sacrifice.
Genesis 7:3 The words in the half-brackets are not present in the Hebrew text but are in the Greek Old Testament. It seems the Hebrew copyist’s eye might have jumped from the occurrence of female before the first half-bracket to the occurrence of female before the second half-bracket. The loss of this phrase would lead to the removal of the word clean near the beginning of the verse.
Genesis 7:6 Or deluge
Genesis 7:11 Or windows
Genesis 7:15 Literally all flesh
Genesis 7:21 Literally all flesh
Genesis 8:19 Literally by their families. Species here is not a narrow technical term as it is in present-day science.
1 This is what happened when mankind [1] began to multiply on the face of the earth. [2]
When daughters were born to people, 2 the sons of God [3] saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives for themselves any of them they chose. 3 The Lord said, “My Spirit will not struggle [4] with man forever, because he is only flesh. [5] His days will be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim [6] were on the earth in those days. After that, the sons of God went to the daughters of men, who bore children for them. Those became the powerful, famous men of ancient times.
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that all the thoughts and plans they formed in their hearts were only evil every day. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with sorrow. [7]7 The Lord said, “I will wipe out mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, along with the animals, the creeping things, and the birds of the sky, because I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah and the Ark
9 This is the account about the development of Noah’s family.
Noah was a righteous man, a man of integrity in that generation. Noah walked with God. 10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 In the sight of God the earth was morally corrupt, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 God looked at the earth and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh was corrupt in all their ways on the earth.
13 So God said to Noah, “I have decreed the end of all flesh, because the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am going to destroy them along with the earth.
14 “Make an ark [8] of gopher wood. [9] Make rooms in the ark. Seal it inside and outside with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: The length of the ark is to be 450 feet, its width 75 feet, and its height 45 feet. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and leave an eighteen-inch opening just under the roof. Place a door on the side of the ark. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.
17 “I myself am about to bring a flood of waters on the earth, in order to destroy all flesh under the sky that has the breath of life. Everything that is on the earth will die, 18 but I will establish my covenant [10] with you. You shall come into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You shall bring a pair (male and female) of every kind of living flesh into the ark with you to keep them alive. 20 Include the birds according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, every creeping thing on the ground according to their kinds. Two of every sort shall come to you, so you can keep them alive. 21 Take with you every type of food that is eaten, and store it for yourself, so it can be used as food for you and for them.”
22 So that is what Noah did. He did everything that God commanded him, just as he had been told.
Footnotes
Genesis 6:1 Literally the adam. The rendering of adam may be man, men, or mankind.
Genesis 6:1 The adamah, the soil or ground
Genesis 6:2 The sons of God were the descendants of Seth. They were marrying the daughters of the ungodly line of Cain and of those who followed in Cain’s way.
Genesis 6:3 Or remain
Genesis 6:3 Flesh may refer to both sinfulness and mortality.
Genesis 6:4 Nephilim is simply a transliteration of the Hebrew word. Its meaning is uncertain, but it is explained by the last sentence of the verse. There can be no direct connection with the Nephilim in Canaan after the flood.
Genesis 6:6 The exact force of the two verbs in this verse is difficult to render in English. God’s regret and grief are not simply his sorrow over sin and its consequences, but that he will now change his course of action.
Genesis 6:14 An ark is a box. The ark was apparently more like a floating box than like a ship.
Genesis 6:14 Gopher is simply a transliteration of the Hebrew word. Many versions translate it as cypress, but we do not know what kind of wood it was.
1 The man was intimate with Eve, his wife. She conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I have gotten a man with the Lord.” [1]2 She also gave birth to Cain’s brother Abel.
Abel tended sheep, but Cain worked the ground. 3 As time passed, one day Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the soil. 4 Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord looked favorably on Abel and his offering, 5 but he did not look favorably on Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and his face showed it.
6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why do you have that angry look on your face? [2]7 If you do good, will you not be lifted up? If you do not do good, sin is crouching at the door. It has a strong desire for you, but you must rule over it.”
8 Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.” [3] When they were in the field, Cain attacked Abel, his brother, and killed him.
9 The Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?”
He said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 The Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the soil. 11 Now you are cursed and sent away from the soil [4] which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the soil, it will no longer give its strength to you. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”
13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great for me to bear. 14 Look, today you have driven me away from the soil. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. And whoever finds me will kill me.”
15 The Lord said to him, “No! [5] If anyone kills Cain, he will face sevenfold revenge.” And the Lord appointed a sign for [6] Cain, so that anyone who found him would not strike him down.
The Descendants of Cain
16 Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, [7] east of Eden.
17 Cain was intimate with his wife. She conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Cain built a city and named the city after his son Enoch. 18 To Enoch, Irad was born. Irad became the father of Mehujael. Mehujael became the father of Methushael. Methushael became the father of Lamech.
19 Lamech took two wives. The name of one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal, who was the predecessor [8] of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal, who was the predecessor of all who play the lyre and flute. 22 Zillah also gave birth to Tubal Cain, who made all kinds of tools and weapons from bronze and iron. Tubal Cain’s sister was Na’amah.
23 Lamech said to his wives:
Adah and Zillah, hear my voice. You wives of Lamech, listen to my speech. Look, I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for bruising me. 24 If Cain will be avenged seven times, then Lamech will be avenged seventy-seven times.
The Family Line of Seth
25 Adam was intimate with his wife again. She gave birth to a son and named him Seth, [9] because she said, “God has set another child in place of Abel for me, since Cain killed him.” 26 Later a son was born to Seth, and he named him Enosh. This is when people began to proclaim [10] the name of the Lord.
Genesis 5
1 This is the account about the development of Adam’s family:
In the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them, and on the day they were created, he named them “mankind.” [11]
3 Adam lived 130 years, and he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his own image, and he named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were 800 years, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 5 All the days that Adam lived were 930 years. Then he died.
6 Seth lived 105 years, and he became the father of Enosh. 7 Seth lived 807 years after he became the father of Enosh, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 8 All the days of Seth were 912 years. Then he died.
9 Enosh lived 90 years, and he became the father of Kenan. 10 Enosh lived 815 years after he became the father of Kenan, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 11 All the days of Enosh were 905 years. Then he died.
12 Kenan lived 70 years, and he became the father of Mahalalel. 13 Kenan lived 840 years after he became the father of Mahalalel, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 14 All the days of Kenan were 910 years. Then he died.
15 Mahalalel lived 65 years, and he became the father of Jared. 16 Mahalalel lived 830 years after he became the father of Jared, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 17 All the days of Mahalalel were 895 years. Then he died.
18 Jared lived 162 years, and he became the father of Enoch. 19 Jared lived 800 years after he became the father of Enoch, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 20 All the days of Jared were 962 years. Then he died.
21 Enoch lived 65 years, and he became the father of Methuselah. 22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 23 All the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God. Then, he was not there, for God took him.
25 Methuselah lived 187 years, and he became the father of Lamech. 26 After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 27 All the days of Methuselah were 969 years. Then he died.
28 Lamech lived 182 years and became the father of a son. 29 He named him Noah [12] and said, “This one will bring us comfort during our work and the hard labor that we must perform with our hands because the Lord has cursed the soil.” 30 Lamech lived 595 years after he became father of Noah, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 31 All the days of Lamech were 777 years. Then he died.
32 Noah was 500 years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. [13]
Footnotes
Genesis 4:1 Or, following Luther’s translation, I have gotten a man, the Lord. The Jerusalem Targum reads I have acquired a man, the Angel of the Lord. Cain means get or acquire.
Genesis 4:6 Literally why has your face fallen
Genesis 4:8 The words let’s go into the field, which are missing from the Hebrew text, are supplied from the ancient versions.
Genesis 4:11 Here and in verse 14 the Hebrew word adamah, which can be translated ground or land, refers to the soil that Cain worked.
Genesis 4:15 The translation no is supported by the ancient versions. The Hebrew reads very well then.
Genesis 4:15 Or placed a mark on
Genesis 4:16 Nod means wandering.
Genesis 4:20 Literally father, that is, the founder of this way of life
Genesis 4:25 Seth sounds like the Hebrew word for set or place.
Genesis 4:26 Or call on
Genesis 5:2 Hebrew adam
Genesis 5:29 The name Noah sounds similar to the Hebrew words for rest and comfort.
Genesis 5:32 It does not seem that all of Noah’s sons were born in the same year. Translations disagree whether the sons were born by the time Noah was 500 years old or after he was 500 years old.
1 Now the serpent was more clever than any wild animal which the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, 3 but not from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it. You shall not touch it, or else you will die.’”
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die. 5 In fact, God knows that the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was appealing to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. She gave some also to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for their waists. [1]8 They heard the voice of the Lord God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part [2] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”
11 God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 The Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the livestock, and more than every wild animal. You shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. [3] He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.
16 To the woman he said:
I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing. With painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, but [4] he will rule over you.
17 To Adam he said:
Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, “You shall not eat from it,” the soil is cursed on account of you. You will eat from it with painful labor all the days of your life. 18 Thorns and thistles will spring up from the ground for you, but you will eat the crops of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the soil, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
20 The man named his wife Eve [5] because she would be the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made clothing of animal skins for Adam and for his wife and clothed them.
22 The Lord God said, “Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, so that he does not reach out his hand and also take from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever—” 23 the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the soil from which he had been taken. 24 So he drove the man out, and in front of [6] the Garden of Eden he stationed cherubim [7] and a flaming sword, which turned in every direction to guard the way to the Tree of Life.
Footnotes
Genesis 3:7 The Hebrew word often means belt, but here it apparently is an apron or a loincloth.
Genesis 3:8 Literally the wind or breeze of the day, that is, late afternoon or evening
Genesis 3:15 In the promises of Genesis and their fulfillment, the translation retains the literal expression seed rather than offspring or descendants to keep the imagery of the Messiah as the Seed of the Woman.
Genesis 3:16 Or and
Genesis 3:20 Eve means life.
Genesis 3:24 Or east of
Genesis 3:24 Cherubim are angels who are part of God’s honor guard. The translation retains the Hebrew form of the plural because cherubs has a different connotation in English.
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The WELS National Conference on Lutheran Leadership, one of the largest gatherings of WELS and Evangelical Lutheran Synod members, was held Jan. 19–21 in Chicago. The event was a huge […]
Thirty-seven people attended the annual meeting of the Association of WELS Chaplains on Feb. 6 at the WELS Center for Mission and Ministry in Waukesha, Wis. The purpose was for […]
Enrollment in WELS schools this school year has decreased slightly from the 2024–25 school year, according to the recently released 2025–26 school statistics. Lutheran high school enrollment continued to climb, […]
On Jan. 9, Charles Vannieuwenhoven was installed as the administrator of the Board for Ministerial Education. Attending the installation and participating in the laying on of hands were the presidents […]