Therefore the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.
- KJV Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
- NKJV therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.
- NASB therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
- NLT 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.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God sends Adam out of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. It marks humanity's exile from God's immediate presence because of sin.
Overview
Expulsion from the garden is the practical outworking of the broken fellowship between God and man. Adam returns to till ordinary ground, now under the curse, away from the place of unhindered communion with God. This exile sets the stage for the whole biblical story of God working to bring His people back into His presence, accomplished finally in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Gen 4:2Later she gave birth to Cain’s brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, while Cain was a tiller of the soil.
- Gen 4:12When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”
- Gen 3:19By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
- Gen 2:5Now no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprouted; for the LORD God had not yet sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.
- Eccl 5:9The produce of the earth is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.
- Gen 9:20Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 3:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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