Genesis 3:9-10

Translation

Then the LORD God called out and said to the man, where are you? And the man said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden but I was afraid so I hid because I was naked.”

Commentary

I heard the sound of you: the Hebrew can also be rendered along the lines of “I heard your voice/sound”. But, given the context of the storm theophany in the previous verse and the fear expressed by Adam, “sound” seems to be a better rendering as it can refer to God’s voice or, more likely, the chaos of the storm theophany in which God now appears ^[1]see the commentary for Genesis 3:8 for more detail.

I hid: this construction occurs 30 times in the Bible and in 25 of those times it is used in this form (especially in the Niphal aspect) to refer to hiding in fear of death. For example, The five kings of the southern confederacy hid themselves in a cave out of fear of Joshua (Josh 19:27), and in this verse, Adam and Eve hide themselves out of consciousness of what is about to become of them, i.e., becoming mortal and therefore subject to death.

Preliminary Translations

My translation conventions can be found here.

Mechanical

Then-called-out, the-LORD-God, and-He-said to him, where [are] you? And he-said, “the-sound-of-you I-heard in-the-garden and-I-feared because-naked was-I and-I-hid.

Literal

Then the LORD God called out and said to the man, where are you? And the man said, “I heard your voice in the garden but I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.

Commercial Bible Translations

• (nas) And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
• (kjv) And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
• (niv) Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
• (nlt) When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the LORD God among the trees.

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