First Sunday in Lent, Year A

Chapter 2

¹⁵ The LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it. ¹⁶ The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; ¹⁷ but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”

Chapter 3

¹ Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” ² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, ³ but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it. You shall not touch it, lest you die.’ ” ⁴ The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t really die, ⁵ for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate. Then she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too. ⁷ Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.

¹ Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered. ² Blessed is the man to whom the LORD doesn’t impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit. ³ When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. ⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. ⁵ I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. ⁶ For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him. ⁷ You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. ⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you. ⁹ Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you. ¹⁰ Many sorrows come to the wicked, but loving kindness shall surround him who trusts in the LORD. ¹¹ Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, you righteous! Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!

¹² Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; so death passed to all men, because all sinned. ¹³ For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. ¹⁴ Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come. ¹⁵ But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. ¹⁶ The gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. ¹⁷ For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. ¹⁹ For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.