Translation
And the man said, “The woman you gave
Go to footnote numberto be with me, she gave
Go to footnote numberme of the tree and I ate.”
Go to footnote numberParaphrase
Then the man said, “It’s not my fault; the woman you gave me as a companion, she picked some the fruit from that tree, recommended it to me, and offered it to me, and that’s why I ate it.”
Footnotes
1: “you gave”
Instead of admitting his guilt, Adam tried to say it was not his fault. In doing so, he not only pointed to the woman as the source of the problem, but to God Himself, saying in effect, “if you had not given her to me, I wouldn’t be in this predicament.” He was accusing God of wrong-doing. God did not answer that charge or defend himself. In fact it appears that God ignored this additional sin, and punished Adam only for having disobeyed the original command.
2: “she gave”
From the context, i.e. the way the story plays out, it seems to me that this statement carries with it much more than what the word “gave” usually would communicate. The fuller meaning is expressed in the paraphrase column.
3
Somehow Adam thought this explanation would suffice as proof that he was forced to eat it. The fact that she had picked it, eaten some herself without falling down dead (he left that part out), and then asked him to eat it too, seemed to him to be reason enough to acquit him of all guilt in the matter. Or it may have been one of those times when you say something and then thought, “It sounded better when I said it inside my head, but when it came out of my mouth it sounded pretty lame.”