Genesis 2:16 (WEB)
The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;
As quoted in the map (KJV)
Genesis 2:16–17 (KJV)
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Key words
- אָכֹל תֹּאכֵלakhol tokhel · Hebrew
- 'thou mayest freely eat' — an emphatic Hebrew idiom; every tree, including the tree of life, is open to them.
- מוֹת תָּמוּתmot tamut · Hebrew
- 'thou shalt surely die' (v. 17) — the same emphatic form; death is the consequence of eating the forbidden tree.
Why it matters
God's first command joins a generous permission to one prohibition and a warning of death. Pitre reads the permission as including the tree of life and the warning as the announcement that death enters through sin (pp 21–23). Note that on p 23 the book attributes 'you shall surely die' to 2:16; the words are in 2:17.