Genesis - Chapter 03 - Line 00067

Contemplative Summary

And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you not to eat from?”

The divine voice continues, not with anger, but with unveiling. The Hebrew mi higgid lekha — “who told you” — opens the question of transmission: by what voice, what awareness, did this new knowledge arrive? The question carries tenderness and astonishment, the ache of relationship altered. Nakedness, once transparent innocence, has become self-consciousness — awareness now seen through separation. The second inquiry, ha-min ha’etz — “from the tree… have you eaten?” — draws the hidden act into light, not to condemn, but to restore coherence between word and being.

Here, God’s speech functions as mirror. The questions are not for information, but for revelation — each one peeling back the veil between event and awareness. The rhythm of the line is diagnostic, not judicial: a divine pulse tracing the path of disalignment. Even in the asking, mercy moves — the voice still calling the human into dialogue rather than silence.

To contemplate this line is to hear the same voice within the self whenever truth seeks to surface. The questions still echo: Who told you this story of yourself? From what tree did you draw this knowledge of lack? Every inquiry from the Source is invitation — not to defend, but to return, to remember the voice that once needed no explanation at all.