Genesis 3:12

Summary

The man responds to God's question by placing responsibility on "the woman," describing her as one God gave to be with him, and stating that she gave him fruit from the tree, which he then ate. The sentence structure moves the blame outward in two steps: first toward the woman's origin (from God), then toward her action (giving him the fruit).

Key words

• ha.'Ishah ("the woman", H0802G) — definite noun, marking her as a specific, already-known referent in the narrative.
• 'asher ("whom", H0834A) — relative particle introducing a clause that qualifies "the woman" by tying her back to God's earlier action.
• natatah ("you gave", H5414G) — qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular, addressed to God; a completed action of "giving/placing."
• hi' ("she", H1931) — independent personal pronoun; since Hebrew verbs already mark person, this separate pronoun adds emphasis on "she" as the one who acted.
• natenah ("she gave", H5414G) — qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular, same root as natatah, creating a verbal echo between what God did and what the woman did.

What the text says

The verse pairs two occurrences of the root natan ("to give", H5414): first natatah ("you gave"), addressed to God concerning the woman, and then natenah ("she gave"), describing the woman's action toward the man. This repetition of the same verb root in two different grammatical persons creates a structural link between God's earlier action and the woman's action, though the text does not state a causal claim beyond this juxtaposition — that is left to the reader of the Hebrew syntax.

The phrase 'immadi ("with me", H5978 + suffix) modifies natatah, describing the woman as one "given with me," rather than being the direct object of "gave to me." The independent pronoun hi' ("she", H1931) is placed before the verb natenah, an emphatic construction, since Hebrew verbs already encode subject through conjugation; its use here foregrounds "she" as agent of the second action. The clause closes with va'okhel ("and I ate", H0398), a narrative-form verb continuing the sequence of completed actions, mirroring the same verbal pattern used throughout the man's speech.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew 'immadi ("with me") is rendered by the LXX as μετ' ἐμοῦ ("with me"), closely matching the Hebrew preposition. The Vulgate renders this same phrase as "dedisti mihi... sociam" ("you gave me... as a companion"), adding the noun "sociam" (companion), a word not present as a separate lexical item in the Hebrew. The Spanish RV1909 and SBLIBRE follow the Vulgate's interpretive pattern with "por compañera" ("as a companion"), while the BSB simplifies to "gave me," omitting the "with" relation entirely.