Genesis 3:23
Sent out
The exile is stated first in plain terms. The man goes back to the ground he was taken from.
Objects of the Bible
The flaming sword
A guard set at a gate, turning every way, keeping a road rather than closing it.
At the east of the garden two things are placed: cherubim, and a sword of flame that turns every way. The verb the account uses is not to block but to keep, the same word used earlier for what the man was supposed to do with the garden itself. It is the first weapon in the Bible, and it is defensive. Nothing is said about it ever being used, and nothing is said about it being taken away.
Scroll down to the story
The movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of The flaming sword
- 01
- 02
Genesis 3:24
Placed at the east
The guard faces the way people left by. It is the direction of departure that is watched.
- 03
Genesis 3:24
Turning every way
A blade that turns in all directions cannot be walked around. The account gives it no wielder and no end.
Why it matters
This is the image that makes exile bearable in Genesis. The way to the tree of life is kept, not destroyed, which means the gate is a held position rather than a verdict. Every later curtain, veil and guarded threshold in Scripture is standing in the same place, and the tearing of one of them at the end of the gospels is written as an answer to it.
2 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
