Bible Strands
Genesis 3:11
“Who told you that you were naked?” asked the LORD God. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD God addresses Adam immediately after Adam admits hearing God’s voice, fearing his nakedness, and hiding in the garden. God’s inquiry follows Adam’s confession of concealment and precedes Adam’s deflection of blame.
The words — The text foregrounds מִי (mi, “who?”) and עֵירֹם ('ei.Rom, “naked”), tying the sudden awareness of exposure to a hidden source. God’s phrasing directly links the revelation of nakedness to the forbidden tree.
The thread — Divine questioning that precedes accountability appears in Genesis 4:10 (“What have you done?”) and Psalms 50:21, where God confronts human self-deception. Romans 3:20 extends this pattern by noting that such divine confrontation produces awareness of sin rather than justification through works.
Why it lands — The verse requires readers to recognize that divine questioning exposes evasion and restores personal responsibility. It demands acknowledgment that awareness of transgression must precede any attempt to shift blame.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Cross-references
- Romans 3:20 Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.
- Genesis 4:10 “What have you done?” replied the LORD. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.
- Psalms 50:21 You have done these things, and I kept silent; you thought I was just like you. But now I rebuke you and accuse you to your face.