Genesis 3:5
כִּי יֹדֵעַ אֱלֹהִים כִּי בְּיוֹם אֲכָלְכֶם מִמֶּנּוּ וְנִפְקְחוּ עֵֽינֵיכֶם וִהְיִיתֶם כֵּֽאלֹהִים יֹדְעֵי טוֹב וָרָֽע׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
כִּ֚י יֹדֵ֣עַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים כִּ֗י בְּיוֹם֙ אֲכָלְכֶ֣ם מִמֶּ֔נּוּ וְנִפְקְח֖וּ עֵֽינֵיכֶ֑ם וִהְיִיתֶם֙ כֵּֽאלֹהִ֔ים יֹדְעֵ֖י ט֥וֹב וָרָֽע׃
ᾔδει γὰρ ὁ θεὸς ὅτι ἐν ἧ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ φάγησθε ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ, διανοιχθήσονται ὑμῶν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί, καὶ ἔσεσθε ὡς θεοί, γινώσκοντες καλὸν καὶ πονηρόν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Scit enim Deus quod in quocumque die comederitis ex eo, aperientur oculi vestri, et eritis sicut dii, scientes bonum et malum.
Dios sabe muy bien que, cuando ustedes coman de ese árbol, se les abrirán los ojos y serán como Dios, conocedores del bien y del mal”.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Mas sabe Dios que el día que comiereis de él, serán abiertos vuestros ojos, y seréis como dioses sabiendo el bien y el mal.
“ For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse reports the serpent's statement about what God knows: that on the day the humans eat from the tree, their eyes will be opened and they will become like 'Elohim — knowing good and evil. The sentence uses two subordinating ki clauses and a chain of sequential verbs to link cause, condition, and consequence.
Key words
- yo.De.a' ("knowing", H3045) — qal participle, masculine singular, describing an ongoing state of knowledge attributed to 'Elohim.
- 'E.lo.Him ("God", H0430G) — masculine plural noun, appearing twice in the verse with different syntactic roles (subject of a singular verb, then object of comparison).
- nif.ke.Chu ("they will be opened", H6491) — niphal (passive) sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain begun by the infinitive clause.
- h.yi.Tem ("you will be", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, second in the vav-chain, marking the final consequence "and you will be...".
- yo.de.'Ei ("knowers of", H3045) — qal participle, masculine plural construct, linked to tov ("good", H2896A) and ra' ("evil", H7451B).
What the text says
The verse opens with ki (H3588A) functioning causally ("for"), followed by the participle yo.De.a' and the noun 'E.lo.Him. Although 'E.lo.Him is morphologically plural, it governs the singular participle yo.De.a' — a pattern found elsewhere in the text where this plural noun takes singular agreement when referring to the deity as a single referent. A second ki (H3588A) introduces the content clause: "that in the day of your-eating from it."
The temporal clause uses the construct noun yOm ("day", H3117G) followed by the infinitive 'a.khal. ("to eat", H0398) with the pronominal suffix -khem ("you", H9046), producing the sense "in your day of eating," i.e., "when you eat." What follows is a two-part sequential perfect chain, each introduced by the narrative vav (H9001): first nif.ke.Chu ("they will be opened"), a niphal form marking a passive/reflexive opening of the eyes ('ei.nei.khem, "your eyes," H5869A dual construct), then h.yi.Tem ("you will be"), leading into the comparison ke.'lo.Him ("like 'Elohim"). Here the same noun 'E.lo.Him reappears, now as the object of comparison, followed by the plural construct participle yo.de.'Ei ("knowers of") governing the coordinated adjectives Tov ("good", H2896A) and Ra' ("evil", H7451B).
Differences between versions
The Hebrew uses the identical plural noun 'E.lo.Him in both occurrences of the verse (as subject of "knows" and as the object of "like"). The LXX renders the first occurrence as singular ὁ θεός ("God") but the second as plural θεοί ("gods"), and the Vulgate similarly renders Deus (singular) followed by dii (plural "gods"). Both the LXX and Vulgate thus distinguish grammatically between the two instances where the Hebrew text repeats the same form.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.