Genesis 2:17

Bible in Basic English (1941)

But of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not take; for on the day when you take of it, death will certainly come to you.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וּמֵעֵ֗ץ הַדַּ֙עַת֙ ט֣וֹב וָרָ֔ע לֹ֥א תֹאכַ֖ל מִמֶּ֑נּוּ כִּ֗י בְּי֛וֹם אֲכָלְךָ֥ מִמֶּ֖נּוּ מ֥וֹת תָּמֽוּת׃

Transliteration

But-from-ʿēṣ haddaʿaṯ ṭôḇ wārāʿ lōʾ ṯōʾḵal mimmenû kî bəyôm ʾăḵālḵā mimmenû môṯ tāmûṯ

Grammar Details

• *ʿēṣ*: noun, masculine, singular construct - tree of
• *haddaʿaṯ*: definite article + noun, feminine, singular construct - the knowledge of
• *ṭôḇ*: adjective, masculine, singular - good
• *wārāʿ*: conjunction + adjective, masculine, singular - and evil
• *lōʾ*: negative particle - not
• *ṯōʾḵal*: Qal imperfect, 2nd singular masculine - you shall eat
• *mimmenû*: preposition + 3rd person masculine singular suffix - from it
• *kî*: conjunction - for/because
• *bəyôm*: preposition + noun, masculine, singular construct - in the day of
• *ʾăḵālḵā*: Qal infinitive construct + 2nd person masculine singular suffix - your eating
• *môṯ tāmûṯ*: Qal infinitive absolute + Qal imperfect, 2nd singular masculine - dying you shall die

Word Meanings

• *haddaʿaṯ ṭôḇ wārāʿ*: the knowledge of good and evil
• *ṯōʾḵal*: you shall eat/you may eat
• *bəyôm*: in the day/when
• *ʾăḵālḵā*: your eating/when you eat
• *môṯ tāmûṯ*: you shall surely die/you will certainly die [emphatic construction]

Referenced Verses

• Jas 1:15 : 15 Then when its time comes, desire gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is of full growth, gives birth to death.
• Rom 6:23 : 23 For the reward of sin is death; but what God freely gives is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
• Gen 3:19 : 19 With the hard work of your hands you will get your bread till you go back to the earth from which you were taken: for dust you are and to the dust you will go back.
• Ezek 18:4 : 4 See, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so the soul of the son is mine: death will be the fate of the sinner's soul.
• Col 2:13 : 13 And you, being dead through your sins and the evil condition of your flesh, to you, I say, he gave life together with him, and forgiveness of all our sins;
• 1 Tim 5:6 : 6 But she who gives herself to pleasure is dead while she is living.
• Rev 20:14 : 14 And death and Hell were put into the sea of fire. This is the second death, even the sea of fire.
• Rev 21:8 : 8 But those who are full of fear and without faith, the unclean and takers of life, those who do the sins of the flesh, and those who make use of evil powers or who give worship to images, and all those who are false, will have their part in the sea of ever-burning fire which is the second death.
• Rom 8:2 : 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
• 1 Cor 15:22 : 22 For as in Adam death comes to all, so in Christ will all come back to life.
• 1 Cor 15:56 : 56 The pain of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law:
• Gal 3:10 : 10 For all who are of the works of the law are under a curse: because it is said in the Writings, A curse is on everyone who does not keep on doing all the things which are ordered in the book of the law.
• Eph 2:1-6 : 1 And to you did he give life, when you were dead through your wrongdoing and sins, 2 In which you were living in the past, after the ways of this present world, doing the pleasure of the lord of the power of the air, the spirit who is now working in those who go against the purpose of God; 3 Among whom we all at one time were living in the pleasures of our flesh, giving way to the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and the punishment of God was waiting for us even as for the rest. 4 But God, being full of mercy, through the great love which he had for us, 5 Even when we were dead through our sins, gave us life together with Christ (by grace you have salvation), 6 So that we came back from death with him, and are seated with him in the heavens, in Christ Jesus;
• Gen 3:17 : 17 And to Adam he said, Because you gave ear to the voice of your wife and took of the fruit of the tree which I said you were not to take, the earth is cursed on your account; in pain you will get your food from it all your life.
• Ezek 3:18-20 : 18 When I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly be your fate; and you give him no word of it and say nothing to make clear to the evil-doer the danger of his evil way, so that he may be safe; that same evil man will come to death in his evil-doing; but I will make you responsible for his blood. 19 But if you give the evil-doer word of his danger, and he is not turned from his sin or from his evil way, death will overtake him in his evil-doing; but your life will be safe. 20 Again, when an upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, and I put a cause of falling in his way, death will overtake him: because you have given him no word of his danger, death will overtake him in his evil-doing, and there will be no memory of the upright acts which he has done; but I will make you responsible for his blood.
• Ezek 18:32 : 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him on whom death comes, says the Lord: be turned back then, and have life.
• Ezek 33:8 : 8 When I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly overtake you; and you say nothing to make clear to the evil-doer the danger of his way; death will overtake that evil man in his evil-doing, but I will make you responsible for his blood.
• Ezek 33:14 : 14 And when I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly be your fate; if he is turned from his sin and does what is ordered and right;
• Rom 1:32 : 32 Who, though they have knowledge of the law of God, that the fate of those who do these things is death, not only go on doing these things themselves, but give approval to those who do them.
• Rom 5:12-21 : 12 For this reason, as through one man sin came into the world, and death because of sin, and so death came to all men, because all have done evil: 13 Because, till the law came, sin was in existence, but sin is not put to the account of anyone when there is no law to be broken. 14 But still death had power from Adam till Moses, even over those who had not done wrong like Adam, who is a picture of him who was to come. 15 But the free giving of God is not like the wrongdoing of man. For if, by the wrongdoing of one man death came to numbers of men, much more did the grace of God, and the free giving by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, come to men. 16 And the free giving has not the same effect as the sin of one: for the effect of one man's sin was punishment by the decision of God, but the free giving had power to give righteousness to wrongdoers in great number. 17 For, if by the wrongdoing of one, death was ruling through the one, much more will those to whom has come the wealth of grace and the giving of righteousness, be ruling in life through the one, even Jesus Christ. 18 So then, as the effect of one act of wrongdoing was that punishment came on all men, even so the effect of one act of righteousness was righteousness of life for all men. 19 Because, as numbers of men became sinners through the wrongdoing of one man, even so will great numbers get righteousness through the keeping of the word of God by one man. 20 And the law came in addition, to make wrongdoing worse; but where there was much sin, there was much more grace: 21 That, as sin had power in death, so grace might have power through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
• Rom 6:16 : 16 Are you not conscious that you are the servants of him to whom you give yourselves to do his desire? if to sin, the end being death, or if to do the desire of God, the end being righteousness.
• Gen 2:9 : 9 And out of the earth the Lord made every tree to come, delighting the eye and good for food; and in the middle of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
• Gen 3:1-4 : 1 Now the snake was wiser than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God truly said that you may not take of the fruit of any tree in the garden? 2 And the woman said, We may take of the fruit of the trees in the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, If you take of it or put your hands on it, death will come to you. 4 And the snake said, Death will not certainly come to you:
• Gen 3:11 : 11 And he said, Who gave you the knowledge that you were without clothing? Have you taken of the fruit of the tree which I said you were not to take?
• Gen 20:7 : 7 So now, give the man back his wife, for he is a prophet, and let him say a prayer for you, so your life may be safe: but if you do not give her back, be certain that death will come to you and all your house.
• Num 26:65 : 65 For the Lord had said of them, Death will certainly overtake them in the waste land. And of them all, only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun, were still living.
• Deut 27:26 : 26 Cursed is he who does not take this law to heart to do it. And let all the people say, So be it.
• Deut 30:15 : 15 See, I have put before you today, life and good, and death and evil;
• Deut 30:19 : 19 Let heaven and earth be my witnesses against you this day that I have put before you life and death, a blessing and a curse: so take life for yourselves and for your seed:
• 1 Sam 14:39 : 39 For, by the living Lord, the saviour of Israel, even if the sinner is Jonathan, my son, death will certainly be his fate. But not a man among all the people gave him any answer.
• 1 Sam 14:44 : 44 And Saul said, May God's punishment be on me if death is not your fate, Jonathan.
• 1 Sam 20:31 : 31 For while the son of Jesse is living on the earth, your position is unsafe and your kingdom is in danger. So make him come here to me, for it is certainly right for him to be put to death.
• 1 Sam 22:16 : 16 And the king said, You will certainly be put to death, Ahimelech, you and all your father's family.
• 1 Kgs 2:37 : 37 For be certain that on the day when you go out and go over the stream Kidron, death will overtake you: and your blood will be on your head.
• 1 Kgs 2:42 : 42 Then the king sent for Shimei, and said to him, Did I not make you take an oath by the Lord, protesting to you and saying, Be certain that on the day when you go out from here, wherever you go, death will overtake you? and you said to me, Very well!
• Eph 5:14 : 14 For this reason he says, Be awake, you who are sleeping, and come up from among the dead, and Christ will be your light.
• Rom 7:10-13 : 10 And I made the discovery that the law whose purpose was to give life had become a cause of death: 11 For I was tricked and put to death by sin, which took its chance through the law. 12 But the law is holy, and its orders are holy, upright, and good. 13 Was then that which is good, death to me? In no way. But the purpose was that sin might be seen to be sin by working death to me through that which is good; so that through the orders of the law sin might seem much more evil.
• 1 John 5:16 : 16 If a man sees his brother doing a sin which is not bad enough for death, let him make a prayer to God, and God will give life to him whose sin was not bad enough for death. There is a sin whose punishment is death: I do not say that he may make such a request then.
• Rev 2:11 : 11 He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not come under the power of the second death.
• Rev 20:6 : 6 Happy and holy is he who has a part in this first coming: over these the second death has no authority, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will be ruling with him a thousand years.
• Ezek 18:13 : 13 And has given out his money at interest and taken great profits: he will certainly not go on living: he has done all these disgusting things: death will certainly be his fate; his blood will be on him.
• Jer 26:8 : 8 Now, when Jeremiah had come to the end of saying everything the Lord had given him orders to say to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people took him by force, saying, Death will certainly be your fate.