Gen 3:9–13: "Where are you?" and the shifting of blame

Says The Lord God calls to the man אַיֶּכָּה, "Where are you?" The man answers that he was afraid כִּי־עֵירֹם אָנֹכִי, "because I was naked." Three more questions follow: מִי הִגִּיד לְךָ כִּי עֵירֹם אָתָּה, "who told you that you are naked?"; הֲמִן־הָעֵץ אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִיךָ לְבִלְתִּי אֲכָל־מִמֶּנּוּ אָכָלְתָּ, "have you eaten of the tree …?"; and to the woman מַה־זֹּאת עָשִׂית, "what is this you have done?" The man answers הָאִשָּׁה אֲשֶׁר נָתַתָּה עִמָּדִי הִוא נָתְנָה־לִּי, "the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me," and the woman הַנָּחָשׁ הִשִּׁיאַנִי, "the serpent deceived me" (BDB Hiphil "beguile, deceive"). Each answer ends וָאֹכֵל, "and I ate" (3:12, 13). The Greek has Ὁ ὄφις ἠπάτησέν με; on the echo in Rom 7:11 see xref.Rom.7.11.Gen.3.13.heb.

Uncertain The lean is that the questions draw a confession rather than seek information: the reader already knows of the eating and the hiding, and each answer ends in an admission. The main alternative reads them as a real inquiry, like a hearing, or as a narrative device, since the story does not say what God knew. This agrees with note.language.Gen.3.1-Gen.3.13.lxx-ophis-epatesen.