Translation
And YHVH ELOHIM (read Adonai Elohim) said to the woman, “What is this you have done?
Go to footnote numberAnd the woman said, “the serpent deceived
Go to footnote numberme, and I ate.”
Paraphrase
Then THE ETERNAL AND PERSONAL GOD who is also THE CREATOR AND OWNER OF ALL THINGS, said to the woman, “Do you
realize how serious this is and how many negative consequences this will bring? How could you do this? What were you thinking? Explain yourself.”
So the woman said, “I did eat it, but only because the serpent deceived me, so don’t blame me, blame the serpent.”
Footnotes
1: “What is this you have done”
This is a strong question intended to accomplish three things: express amazement at what she had done, point out the severity of the situation, and find out the cause behind it.
2: “deceived me”
“The serpent tricked me by talking sweetly and nicely to me.” That is the meaning of this phrase, and is how deceit works. By “sweetly” it is meant, “he told me what I wanted to hear.” She was already questioning God and His one prohibition. This is seen in part by her comment about not even touching the fruit. The serpent simply played on the desire that was already within her – to question God’s goodness.
The deeper question for us is this: where did this desire come from? They did not yet possess a sinful nature, so it was not her nature to question God’s goodness, so where did it come from? It appears that they did have both the freedom and the ability to logically question things. For instance, if a rule is made against doing something, the natural question is, “Why not?” In her case, the logical progression of her questions caused her to think the prohibition was without warrant and the next step was to think ill of the one who had made the prohibition. In part her questioning of God’s goodness was due to the brevity of God’s explanation, “if you eat it you will die,” and the fact that faith was required in order to accept His brief explanation without further questioning. It is possible that Adam had a similar thought, and was therefore not doing his job of protecting his wife from moral danger.