Genesis 3:21-24·~1 min

The Expulsion from Paradise

The LORD God makes garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothes them.

A²¹nd the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

God declares that the man now knows good and evil and must not also take from the tree of life. So the man is banished from Eden to work the ground, and cherubim guard the way back.

²²Then 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...” ²³Therefore the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.

Section summaryEven after judgment, the LORD God clothes the man and woman. But they are then sent out from Eden and barred from the tree of life, so the garden becomes a lost place whose way is now guarded.

Role in the chapterThis final section closes the garden story. It joins care and exclusion together, ending the chapter with both provision for life outside Eden and a firm boundary around what has been lost.