to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Who
מִ֚יmi
H4310
who? (occasionally · interrogative pronoun
told
הִגִּ֣ידhi.Gid
H5046
properly · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
naked
עֵירֹ֖ם'ei.Rom
H5903
nudity · adjective, masculine singular absolute
eaten
אֲכָל'a.khol-
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal infinitive construct
tree
הָעֵ֗ץha.'Etz
H6086
a tree (from its firmness) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
thee
צִוִּיתִ֛יךָtzi.vi.Ti.kha
H6680
(intensively) to constitute · verb, piel perfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
not
לְבִלְתִּ֥יle.vil.Ti
H1115
properly · preposition + noun, common both genders singular absolute
eat
אָכָֽלְתָּ'a.Khal.ta
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Genesis 4:10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.
Psalms 50:21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 3:11-13
We have here the offenders found guilty by their own confession, and yet endeavouring to excuse and extenuate their fault. They could not confess and justify what they had done, but they confess and palliate it. Observe,
I. How their confession was extorted from them. God put it to the man: Who told thee that thou wast naked? Gen 3:11. "How camest thou to be sensible of thy nakedness as thy shame?" Hast thou eaten of the forbidden tree? Note, Though God knows all our sins, yet he will know them from us, and requires from us an ingenuous confession of them; not that he may be informed, but that we may be humbled. In this examination, God reminds him of the command he had given him: "I command…
THE EXAMINATION. (Gen 3:10-13)
afraid, because . . . naked--apparently, a confession--the language of sorrow; but it was evasive--no signs of true humility and penitence--each tries to throw the blame on another.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 3:10
I was afraid, because I was naked - See the immediate consequences of sin. 1. Shame, because of the ingratitude marked in the rebellion, and because that in aiming to be like God they were now sunk into a state of the greatest wretchedness. 2. Fear, because they saw they had been deceived by Satan, and were exposed to that death and punishment from which he had promised them an exemption. How worthy is it of remark that this cause continues to produce the very same effects! Shame and fear were the first fruits of sin, and fruits which it has invariably produced, from the first transgression to the present time.
John Gill on Genesis 3:11
And he said,.... The Lord God, or the Word of the Lord:
who told thee that thou wast naked? or showed it to thee; by what means hast thou got knowledge of it? what hast thou done that thou perceivest it, so as to cause shame and fear? man was made naked, and so he continued, and he must be sensible of it, but it gave him no uneasiness, because he was without shame on account of it; so that it was as if it was not, and he was regardless of it, as if he was not naked; but now, having sinned, he could not look upon his nakedness without blushing, and sin being what had produced this sensation, he was afraid to appear before God, against whom he had sinned; though he did not choose to acknowled…
The Church Fathers
You see, since he was not unaware of the truth when he asked them but rather knew, and knew very well, he shows consideration for their limitations so as to demonstrate his own loving kindness, and he invites them to make admission of their faults.
Therefore, the Lord willing now to punish sinners asked according to the manner of justice more than that penalty, from which they were already compelled to be ashamed, For he says, Who told you that you were naked, unless you have eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat? For from here indeed death was conceived because of God's sentence, who had thus threatened, made the members be noticed with concupiscence: where their eyes are said to be opened, and followed what would cause shame.
Where could you have got the knowledge of this, he says, and be covered in such confusion, unless you have been so intemperate as to despise my command? Notice, dearly beloved, the excess of God's goodness, how, in this manner of one friend communing with another and remonstrating with him over transgression of his instructions, he enters into dialog with Adam. "'Who told you that you are naked unless you have eaten from that one tree I told you not to eat from?'" Even the phrase, "that one tree," bears a slight nuance: Surely I didn't inhibit your enjoyment? it is saying. Did I not relieve you of every need, give you authority over everything in the garden, and only instruct you to keep away from that one thing so that you might be in a position to know that you are subject to direction and required to show some obedience? So what kind of terrible in difference is this that, despite your having such great enjoyment, you could not bear to keep away from that one thing but rather hastened in that manner to violate the command given you by me and envelop yourself in so many excesses? What good was that to you? Hadn't I warned you of that in advance? Wasn't it my intention to check you be forehand with fear of punishment and so make you more cautious? Didn't I tell you what would be likely to happen? Didn't I for that reason forbid your eating that fruit so that you wouldn't fall victim to those faults? Who could consider you deserving of excuse now that you've proved to be so unresponsive despite so many directions? (138d) didn't I thus instruct you in every detail, like a father to his own dear son, and teach you to keep away from this tree while being free to taste all the others lest it wreak havoc with all your endowments? Perhaps, however, you have thought advice from an other quarter acceptable and to be preferred to my command, and followed it in the expectation of gaining greater advantages, and out of scorn for my command you were bold enough to eat from the tree. See what you suffered through that experiment: you discovered the disastrous effect of that advice. Do you see the loving kindness of the judge? Do you see his mildness and longsuffering? Do you see his considerateness stretching beyond all thought and imagination? Do you see how through his question and the words, "Who told you that you are naked unless you have eaten from that one tree I…
Dictionary and topics
Adam — Red, a Babylonian word, the generic name for man, having the same meaning in the Hebrew and the Assyrian languages. It was the name given to the first man, whose creation, fall, and subsequent…
Devil — (Gr. diabolos), a slanderer, the arch-enemy of man’s spiritual interest (Job 1:6; Rev. 2:10; Zech. 3:1). He is called also “the accuser of the brethen” (Rev. 12:10). In Lev. 17:7 the word “devil” is…
Serpent — (Heb. nahash; Gr. ophis), frequently noticed in Scripture. More than forty species are found in Syria and Arabia. The poisonous character of the serpent is alluded to in Jacob’s blessing on Dan (Gen.…
Tree of the knowledge of good and evil — Stood in the midst of the garden of Eden, beside the tree of life (Gen. 2, 3). Adam and Eve were forbidden to take of the fruit which grew upon it. But they disobeyed the divine injunction, and so…
Disobedience To God · .Of Adam and Eve, eating the forbid — .Of Adam and Eve, eating the forbid
Escape · NONE, FROM THE — NONE, FROM THE
Fall Of Man · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Fall Of Man, The · By the disobedience of Adam — By the disobedience of Adam
God · .To Adam — .To Adam
Innocency · Contrasted with guilt, compare — Contrasted with guilt, compare
Man · Disobeyed God by eating part of the forbidden fruit — Disobeyed God by eating part of the forbidden fruit
Who told thee that thou wast naked ? An indirect reprimand to reprove the sottishness of Adam in not perceiving his fault in his punishment, as if it had been said, not simply that Adam was afraid at the voice of God, but that the voice of his judge was formidable to him because he was a sinner. Also, that not his nakedness, but the turpitude of the vice by which he had defiled himself, was the cause of fear; and certainly he was guilty of intolerable impiety against God in seeking the origin of evil in nature. Not that he would accuse God in express terms; but deploring his own misery, and dissembling the fact that he was himself the author of it, he malignantly transfers to God the charge…
The man could not hide himself from God. "Jehovah God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?" Not that He was ignorant of his hiding-place, but to bring him to a confession of his sin. And when Adam said that he had hidden himself through fear of his nakedness, and thus sought to hide the sin behind its consequences, his disobedience behind the feeling of shame; this is not to be regarded as a sign of peculiar obduracy, but easily admits of a psychological explanation, viz., that at the time he actually thought more of his nakedness and shame than of his transgression of the divine command, and his consciousness of the effects of his sin was keener than his sense of the sin its…
Where are you? The true intent of this rhetorical question is revealed in the man’s answer (3:10). The real question was, why are you hiding? (cp. 4:9-10). • I was afraid because I was naked: Modesty was not the issue. The shame brought on by rebellion drove Adam and his wife to hide. Possibly they also feared punishment (see study note on 3:8).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
· Satan appears to Eve in the form of
— Satan appears to Eve in the form of
Sin · .No es — .No es
Temptation · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Tree · Of knowledge — Of knowledge
Woman · Led man to disobey God — Led man to disobey God
Women · Fall of, and curse upon — Fall of, and curse upon
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
