Genesis 3:13

Genesis 3:13, in plain English

God turns to the woman and asks what she has done.

Why it's here

God is methodically calling each person to account. He's not asking because He doesn't know; He's asking because accountability and confession matter for restoration. He gives the woman space to respond.

Who's speaking

The LORD God

Where it sits in the story

God treats the woman's agency seriously too. She's not ignored or dismissed — her choice mattered, and God holds her responsible. He's doing the same thing for her that He did for Adam: inviting her to face the truth.

The scholarly reading

God turns to the woman, asking her what she has done—now moving to hold her accountable for her role.

Language and setting

God's question to the woman mirrors His earlier question to the man, but with a crucial difference: 'What is this you have done?' (*Mah-zot asit?*) is more directly accusatory than the measured interrogation of the man. Some commentators have detected here a different tone, perhaps reflecting the different nature of her temptation (she was deceived, whereas the man ate knowingly). However, the text presents both as subjects of judgment. Medieval commentators, particularly those influenced by Aristotelian ethics, debated whether ignorance or deception mitigates culpability; the text itself does not explicitly grant her such mitigation.

Voice

God, now addressing the woman's accountability.

Significance

The fact that God questions both demonstrates that both bear responsibility for the transgression, though the narrative structure establishes them as having played different roles. This sets the foundation for Paul's reading in 1 Timothy 2:13-14, where he emphasizes that Adam was formed first and notes that 'the woman, being deceived, fell into transgression'—a reading that later interpreters have sometimes (though not uncontroversially) taken as assigning greater culpability to Adam.

11“Who told you that you were naked?” asked the LORD God. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

12And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

14So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life.

15And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Read all of Genesis 3 — Something goes terribly wrong in paradise. But hidden in the words of judgment is the first whisper of a rescue plan.