Bible Strands
Genesis 3:22
Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh God speaks after clothing Adam and Eve in skins, declaring their new state before banishing them from Eden to work the ground.
The words — The Hebrew הֵן (hen) translates as "behold," marking a divine observation, while הָיָה (ha.yah) means "he has become," indicating a completed change in Adam's condition.
The thread — The tree of life reappears in Revelation 22:14 as a reward for the purified, while Proverbs 3:18 describes wisdom as a tree of life to those who embrace it.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that human autonomy has irrevocably altered humanity's relationship with divine life, requiring reliance on God's provision rather than self-directed access to immortality.
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 the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Cross-references
- Revelation 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.
- Revelation 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates.
- Proverbs 3:18 She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who lay hold of her are blessed.
- Genesis 11:6 And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them.
- Revelation 22:2 down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
- Genesis 2:9 Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
- John 6:48 I am the bread of life.
- Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”
- Genesis 3:5 “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
- Isaiah 47:12 So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!