Genesis 2:16-17
What is written? (ESV)
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
What does it say?
God commanded Adam, telling him that he may eat of all the trees of the garden except one. If he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil he would surely die in the day he ate of it.
What is its immediate context?
This command by God for Adam to obey, was later disobeyed with the deception of Eve by Satan (3:1-6). Their disobedience led to both a physical death (3:19) but also a spiritual death and separation from God (3:23-24). Further were the specific curses to both the woman (3:16) and man (3:17-18).
How Genesis 2:16-17 is applied across Bible answers
Does man have free will?
God established a rule in the Garden of Eden that Adam (and later Eve) could choose to obey or disregard.
What is the result of sin?
Sin leads to death.
In this particular case, it was both physical and spiritual death (separation from God) as well as an everlasting curse on both the man (difficult labor) and the woman (pain in childbirth and strife with man who "shall rule over" her - Genesis 3:16).
