Genesis 3:23
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Therefore the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
The story of this chapter is perhaps as sad a story (all things considered) as any we have in all the Bible. In the foregoing chapters we have had the pleasant view of the holiness and happiness of our first parents, the grace and favour of God, and the peace and beauty of the whole creation, all good, very good; but here the scene is altered. We have here an account of the sin and misery of our first parents, the wrath and curse of God against them, the peace of the creation disturbed, and its beauty stained and sullied, all bad, very bad. "How has the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed!" O that our hearts were deeply affected with this record! For we are all nearly concerned in it; let it not be to us as a tale that is told. The general contents of this chapter we have (Rom 5:12), "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." More particularly, we have here, I. The innocent tempted (Gen 3:1-5). II. The tempted transgressing (Gen 3:6-8). III. The transgressors arraigned (Gen 3:9, Gen 3:10). IV. Upon their arraignment, convicted (Gen 3:11-13). V. Upon their conviction, sentenced, (Gen 3:14-19). VI. After sentence, reprieved (Gen 3:20, Gen 3:21). VII. Notwithstanding their reprieve, execution in part done (Gen 3:22-24). And were it not for the gracious intimations here given of redemption by the promised seed, they, and all their degenerate guilty race, would have been left to endless despair.
Open source ↗3:23 So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden: Before the Fall, the garden was a sanctuary in which humans could move freely in God’s holy presence. Now their sin required expulsion from that environment. This same principle was behind the laws that restricted an Israelite’s access to God’s presence in the Tabernacle or Temple (e.g., Lev 16:1-2; Num 5:3).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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Later she gave birth to Cain’s brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, while Cain was a tiller of the soil.
By 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.”
When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”
Now 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.
The produce of the earth is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.
Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard.