Good News Translation inserts a heading before verse 22: “Adam and Eve are sent out of the garden.” In some languages it will be necessary to express this actively: “God sends Adam and Eve out of the garden.” “Send” here indicates a forceful removal.

Then … said: Then marks a new event in the sequence of events.

For Behold see 1.29. The man translates ʾadam with the article.

Like one of us: see 1.26. Here this is a comparison to God, or to God and his heavenly court, or to God and other spiritual beings. There is no certain way to know. The comparison is that now the man also knows what is good and what is bad, or more generally “knows everything.” In verse 5 the snake told the woman “when you eat it … you will be like God,” which can also mean “like gods.” See comments on Gen 3.5.

Knowing good and evil: see comments on 2.9.

And now, which translates the Hebrew connective together with an adverb, introduces a new condition or circumstance.

Lest he put forth his hand and take: lest translates the same particle used in verse 3 “lest you die,” and means “so that he will not….” The literal translation of the Hebrew in Revised Standard Version is not natural English at all, and other translations give different expressions of lest in acceptable English. Some, like Good News Translation and New International Version, make it refer to action to prevent something happening: “He must not be allowed to….” Others, including New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, and Anchor Bible, take it as speaking of the possibility that something undesirable might happen: “He might…” or “What if he…?” In this second case it is the action described in verse 23 that prevents the undesirable thing happening.

The particle is followed by four events, put forth his hand and take…, and eat, and live …. The Revised Standard Version construction is heavy, and it is often possible to restructure this to say, for example, “He must not take fruit from the tree that gives life, because if he does, he will eat it and live forever.” For tree of life see 2.9. And live for ever refers to future time, a time that never ends, unlimited duration. There is no attempt here to distinguish between physical and spiritual living.

The dash in Revised Standard Version and live for ever— is used to mark a broken or unfinished sentence in the Hebrew. God is speaking in the first person up to this point, but he does not complete the sentence by declaring what he will do to prevent the man from living forever. Instead, the narrative goes on by referring to God in the third person and then telling what God did. Most other English translations smooth out this transition, and translators are advised to do the same in their languages.

Two examples of the way the last half of this verse has been rendered are: “We can’t let him go near this Tree of Life. He must not eat the fruit of this tree too and live forever”; and “We must not let him eat the fruit of this tree that gives life. If he eats this fruit, he will never die.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .