Book X

God, knowing all that happened in Paradise, tells the angels they are not to blame; He declares that Man has fallen and must face the penalty, and sends the Son as judge and mediator.

The Son accepts God's commission with perfect obedience, promising to temper justice with mercy; He descends swiftly to Eden while the angelic host accompanies him to Heaven's gate.

As evening falls the Son arrives in the cool garden; Adam and Eve, hearing God's voice, hide themselves among the thickest trees until the Son calls Adam to come forth.

Adam, beset and afraid, admits he heard God and hid because he was naked; under questioning he shifts the blame to Eve, saying she gave him the tree and he ate.

Eve confesses simply that the serpent beguiled her; God, hearing this, proceeds to judgment and curses the serpent, then turns to pronounce sentence on Eve and Adam.

God curses the serpent to crawl on its belly, promises enmity between its seed and Eve's, multiplies Eve's sorrow in childbearing, and sentences Adam to labor and eventual return to dust.

Even in judgment the Son defers the immediate stroke of death; acting as father of his family he clothes Adam and Eve with skins, covering their outward and inward nakedness before returning to Heaven.

Sin and Death build a vast bridge from Hell to Earth; Satan returns to Pandemonium to boast of his victory, but at the moment of triumph he and all the fallen angels are transformed into hissing serpents.

God commands nature to become harsh—cold, storms, seasons—as a consequence of the Fall; Adam, alone and anguished, cries out in despair, cursing his creation and longing for death.

Eve throws herself at Adam's feet in tears; Adam relents, raises her, and together they resolve to bear their punishment with patience and to pray before God in penitence.