And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I [was] naked; and I hid myself.
10. heard afraid hid ] The man has not courage to tell the whole truth. Fear suppresses that part of the truth which love should have avowed. To hide from God’s presence is the instinct of guilt; it is the converse of “to seek His face.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 10. I was afraid, because I was naked] See the immediate consequences of sin. 1. SHAME, because of the ingratitude marked in the rebellion, and because that in aiming to be like God they were now sunk into a state of the greatest wretchedness. 2. FEAR, because they saw they had been deceived by Satan, and were exposed to that death and punishment from which he had promised them an exemption. How worthy is it of remark that this cause continues to produce the very same effects! Shame and fear were the first fruits of sin, and fruits which it has invariably produced, from the first transgression to the present time.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He confesseth his nakedness, which was evident, but saith nothing of his sin; which, if possible, he would have hid: see Job 31:33. And is grieved for the shameful effects of his sin, but not yet sincerely penitent for his sin.
I hid myself, out of reverence to thy glorious majesty.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. afraid, because . . .nakedapparently, a confessionthe language of sorrow; but itwas evasiveno signs of true humility and penitenceeach tries tothrow the blame on another.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden,…. The voice of thy Word, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan: this was not the true cause of his hiding himself; he had heard his voice in the garden before, when it did not strike him with terror, but gave him pleasure;
and I was afraid, because I was naked. This also was not the true reason; he was naked from his creation as to his body, and it caused no shame in him, nor any dread to appear before God; he conceals the true cause, which was sin, that made the nakedness of his body shameful, and had stripped his soul of its native clothing, purity and holiness; and therefore it was, he could not appear before a pure and holy Being:
and I hid myself; among the trees of the garden, and his wife also; or therefore w “hid myself”; through fear of God, his wrath and displeasure, which he had justly incurred by his disobedience, and because of his sin which had made his soul naked, though he was not as yet ingenuous enough to confess it.
w “ldeo”, Vatablus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10. And he said, I heard thy voice. Although this seems to be the confession of a dejected and humbled man, it will nevertheless soon appear that he was not yet properly subdued, nor led to repentance. He imputes his fear to the voice of God, and to his own nakedness, as, if he had never before heard God speaking without being alarmed, and had not been even sweetly exhilarated by his speech. His excessive stupidity appears in this, that he fails to recognize the cause of shame in his sin; he, therefore, shows that he does not yet so feel his punishment, as to confess his fault. In the meantime, he proves what I said before to be true, that original sin does not reside in one part of the body only, but holds its dominion over the whole man, and so occupies every part of the soul, that none remains in its integrity; for, notwithstanding his fig-leaves, he still dreads the presence of God.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
10. I was afraid, because I was naked Adam’s self-defence was a self-betrayal . Fear, consequent upon a sense of guilt, distracts the reason, demoralizes the judgment, and exposes the transgressor to certain condemnation . His nakedness was, for the moment, more prominent in his thought than a proper sense of his guilt .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he said, “I heard the sound of your presence in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself .” ’
How quickly the man gives himself away. The futile coverings that they had made had proved useless, as do all man’s attempts to make himself acceptable to God. (‘Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags’ declares the prophet in Isa 64:6) Now he has to recognise the folly of his ways. ‘I was afraid because I was naked’. The knowledge of God’s presence had intensified his sense of shame. Now he knew himself for what he now was, and it caused him to give himself away completely. ‘And I hid myself ’. The frank admission that alone could give him hope. He does not try to brazen it out before God. He admits his unworthiness, his shame, that he is not fit to meet God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 3:10. Because I was naked That is, not only naked in body, but, what much more occasions my fear, naked in mind through sin; guilty, and stript of my original righteousness, and therefore ashamed to stand before thee.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I [was] naked; and I hid myself.
Ver. 10. I heard thy voice. ] So he had done before his fall, and feared not. “Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?” Mic 2:7 Excellently St Austin, Adversarius est nobis, quamdiu sumus et ipsi nobis: Quamdiu tu tibi inimicus es, inimicum habebis sermonem Dei . Yea, but I was naked, and therefore hid myself. This also was non causa pro causa . There was another pad in the straw, which he studiously conceals, viz., the conscience of his sin. a Hic vero non factum suum, sed Dei factum in semetipso reprehendit saith Rupertus. He blames not himself, but God, for making him naked; and so verifies that of Solomon, “The foolishness of man perverteth his way”; Pro 19:3 and then, to mend the matter, “his heart fretteth against the Lord.” O silly simple!
a Excusando seipsum accusat . – Gregor .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
and I was: Gen 2:25, Exo 3:6, Job 23:15, Psa 119:120, Isa 33:14, Isa 57:11, 1Jo 3:20
because: Gen 3:7, Gen 2:25, Exo 32:25, Isa 47:3, Rev 3:17, Rev 3:18, Rev 16:15
Reciprocal: Gen 3:5 – your Gen 3:8 – And they Job 15:21 – dreadful sound Eze 16:36 – and thy Dan 10:7 – so Rev 22:3 – there
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
COWARDICE AND CANT
I heard Thy voice and I was afraid.
Gen 3:10
I. I heard Thy voice and I was afraid. The words are Adams words, spoken after that first sin, which we are told about in to-days first morning lesson. Was Adam a coward when he uttered them?
Yes, he wasa conscience-made coward, like many a one after him. He is a coward after his sin, not before it; in his rebellion against God, and not in His service. And the same thing has been true in the case of thousands of His children. For fear is the unhappy firstborn of sin. It is not religion that makes man a coward, but the want of it. We do wrong, and then conscience doth make cowards of us all.
But while in Adams mouth the words of the text are the words of a coward, in themselves they are not, by any means, necessarily so. They might well be, under different conditions, as, doubtless, they have often been, the words of the bravest, truest spirits breathing. For, over and over again, absolute fearlessness is found to go hand in hand with, even as it is the direct outcome of fearthe only fear which has no trace of shame in it; holy fear, the fear of Godthe fear of sin!
He feared man so little because he feared God so much, was once said of a great Indian statesman. Who could desire a better epitapha nobler record of a finished life? It describes a man who stands a head and shoulders above the common run of mena man in a generation, perhaps. One who has confidence in himself, and inspires confidence in others. One who would regard an invitation to do wrong as an insult, so jealous is he of the honour of God. Who, in answer to the seemingly bold, but really uneasy taunt of the scoffer, What! youre afraid, are you? looks his accuser in the face, and answers, Yes; I am afraid. I am not afraid of you, or of any man living, but I am afraid of God, and afraid to do what He forbids?
If a man is truly religious, he is, he must be, above all things a fearless man. And yet many a manmany a young man especiallyshrinks from being marked down religious, because he imagines that religion is not manly enough for him; because some have told him, and he has believed it, that it is all cant and cowardice.
Now let us say a word about cant.
I hate cant, a man says, and thinks that he has, therefore, given a very good reason for despising religion. Now the sentiment he expresses is a very good one, as far as it goes. Every honest man should, and does hate cant. But what is cant? Let us see.
Literally, cant is whiningpractically, it is unreality. Well, there is religious cantand this is of two kinds.
II. Some people make religion, and a stock of religious phrases, a cloak for their evil lives. This is cant, and of a very bad kind.
Others, again, who are very far from being hypocrites, uncharitably condemn, nay, anathematise, innocent amusements, and many things, which though innocent in themselves, are abused by many. Of course, we can make anything sinful; but to condemn cards and theatres, for instance, as in themselves works of the devil, is to give, not the enemies of religion alone, good reason for identifying religion with cant.
But now, do people ever stop to consider that there is at least as much cant outside of religion as ever was found within it? And the very people who cry out against religious cant make a very liberal use of cant of their own. It reminds one of the old story that tells how the philosopher Diogenes paid a visit to a brother philosopher, Plato, and finding the other amid luxurious carpets, and other comforts, entered his room with the remark, I trample upon the ostentation of Plato. Yes, answered Plato, with an ostentation of your own.
Now the man who speaks of sin as seeing life, enjoying life, being a bit fast, and so on, is canting, and in a very mischievous way.
Not only is the religious man a braver man than the godless, but he needs to be. His is the harder life. God, the angels, Gods people, do not at least jeer the wicked man, subject him to petty annoyances, make his life a burden to him, but the religious man must stand out against all these patiently.
Rev. J. B. C. Murphy.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Gen 3:10. I was afraid, because I was naked He confesses his nakedness, which was evident; but makes no mention of his sin. This he wished rather to hide, feeling, indeed, the shameful effects of it, but not yet being truly penitent for it.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I [was] {i} naked; and I hid myself.
(i) His hypocrisy appears in that he hid the cause of his nakedness, which was the transgression of God’s commandment.