_THE WOMAN IS DECEIVED BY THE SERPENT; EATS THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT, AND GIVES HER HUSBAND TO EAT WITH HER. GOD REBUKES BOTH HIM AND HER: CURSES THE SERPENT, ANNOUNCES PROPER PUNISHMENT ON ADAM AND EVE, DRIVES THEM FROM PARADISE, AND PLACES THE CHERUBIM AT THE GATE._ Our first parents, in bliss and jo... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SERPENT— If, in the account of the fall, there should be many difficulties, it will not seem strange to any who observe, that Moses gives only general hints, sufficient to acquaint us indeed with the fact, that man transgressed the divine command; but by no means sufficient to inform us of every... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER SHALL YE TOUCH IT— Words which some expositors have supposed to contain a prevarication on the part of Eve; but they express no more than a strong confirmation of the former clause.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SERPENT SAID, YE SHALL NOT DIE— The woman having urged God's malediction, the tempter was interested to remove its force, without which it was impossible for him to prevail. And therefore, with the most daring, yet subtle boldness, he contradicts the divine assertion, and throws the vilest asper... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL BE AS GODS, KNOWING GOOD AND EVIL— כאלהים _keelohim, like God._ See note on Genesis 3:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
SAW THAT THE TREE WAS GOOD FOR FOOD, &C.— It is not easy to determine how the woman could discover this, unless by supposing, as we have done in a note above, that she saw the serpent eat of it, and that without prejudice, nay, with great advantage to him, raised, as he seemed, by means of this good... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE EYES OF THEM BOTH WERE OPENED, &C.— They found what the serpent had asserted to be true, Genesis 3:5 but in a manner far different from expectation. _Their eyes were opened,_ but not to a view of higher happiness: they were opened only to a sense of their sin, and consequently of their guilt... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY HEARD, &C.— This may be rendered, _and they heard the sound of the Lord God proceeding or coming into the garden, at the decline, or in the cool of the day,_ whether morning or evening. The word, which our translators render _voice,_ קול _koll,_ denotes any sort of sound; and the root of th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD GOD, &C.— It is not to be supposed that the Omniscient either knew not where Adam and Eve were, or wanted to be informed of what they had done, when he asked the questions in this and the 11th verse: but these questions are used to introduce the account following, and to shew us, _more... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE I WAS NAKED— That is, not only naked in body, but, what much more occasions my fear, naked in mind through sin; guilty, and stript of my original righteousness, and therefore ashamed to stand before thee.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WOMAN THOU GAVEST ME, &.— Here observe again another evil fruit of sin: what sad disturbance and overthrow it makes in the once calm, even, and innocent mind! With disingenuous ingratitude Adam attempts to throw all the guilt of his offence even upon his Divine Benefactor, by taxing his best gif... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD SAID UNTO THE SERPENT, &C.— In this and the following verses, we have an account of the sentence which the Lord God passed upon the three delinquents. There is no difficulty in understanding that which was passed on the man and the woman: but various opinions and conjectures have been forme... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL PUT ENMITY, &C.— If it be evident, that the former part of this sentence principally refers to the natural serpent; it seems no less so, that the latter part refers principally to the spiritual one. For though it is undeniable, that there is a natural enmity between the serpentine and the... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO THE WOMAN HE SAID, &C.— "Thy sorrow, by thy conception," says Mr. Locke. This has indeed been fulfilled upon the female sex, as no females, it is asserted, know so much sorrow, and so much anguish, during the time of conception, and in the hour of parturition, as those of the human species. _T... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO ADAM HE SAID, &C.— Now follows the curse of the man, who is doomed to toil and labour for his food and support all the days of his life; labour upon a soil, cursed for his sake, and consequently producing no good of itself, but only thorns and thistles: labour, till his body returned again to t... [ Continue Reading ]
DUST THOU ART, AND UNTO DUST SHALT THOU RETURN— The plain inference to be drawn from this part of the sentence is, that the human body would have been preserved from decay and death, immortal and incorruptible, had man persevered in innocence. REFLECTIONS.—Our first parents wanted to be wiser, want... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ADAM CALLED, &C.— Adam had probably expected the immediate infliction of the punishment denounced, _thou shalt die;_ and finding it respited, and that he and his wife were to be the parents of the human race, he therefore gave her this name, in testimony of his joyfulness, _Eve, the mother of al... [ Continue Reading ]
DID THE LORD GOD MAKE COATS, &C.— But of what beasts it has been asked? such as were killed on purpose for the occasion, or such as were killed in sacrifice? which many suppose was instituted from this period, as from this period its necessity commenced. This can be but conjecture from the present p... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD GOD SAID, BEHOLD, THE MAN, &C.— The phrase of knowing good and evil imports general knowledge. We find it so applied in other parts of scripture, The woman of Tekoah says to David, 2 Samuel 14:17. _As an angel of God, so is my lord the king, to discern good and evil,_ which is fully explain... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE THE LORD GOD, &C.— The connexion of this and the following verse, according to the sense which we have given, is this: "And the Lord expelled, divorced, the man from the garden of Eden, to till the ground; and after he had expelled him, he placed cherubims, &c. at the east of the garden, t... [ Continue Reading ]
CHERUBIMS— By these the generality of commentators understand angels. A modern writer has endeavoured to prove that they were hieroglyphical, or emblematical representations of the Trinity and the Incarnation. We shall have occasion to consider this opinion more distinctly hereafter, when we come to... [ Continue Reading ]