planting your garden

¹⁵Thus, the Lord God brought the man, and put him into the Paradise of enjoyment, so that it would be attended and preserved by him.

⁵I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For without me, you are able to do nothing.

¹And again, he began to teach by the sea. And a great crowd was gathered to him, so much so that, climbing into a boat, he was seated on the sea. And the entire crowd was on the land along the sea. ²And he taught them many things in parables, and he said to them, in his doctrine: ³“Listen. Behold, the sower went out to sow. ⁴And while he was sowing, some fell along the way, and the birds of the air came and ate it. ⁵Yet truly, others fell upon stony ground, where it did not have much soil. And it rose up quickly, because it had no depth of soil. ⁶And when the sun was risen, it was scorched. And because it had no root, it withered away.

²But his will is with the law of the Lord, and he will meditate on his law, day and night. ³And he will be like a tree that has been planted beside running waters, which will provide its fruit in its time, and its leaf will not fall away, and all things whatsoever that he does will prosper.

¹¹to choose work that allows you to be tranquil, and to carry out your business and to do your work with your own hands, just as we have instructed you, ¹²and to walk honestly with those who are outside, and to desire nothing belonging to another.

⁹And from the soil the Lord God produced every tree that was beautiful to behold and pleasant to eat. And even the tree of life was in the midst of Paradise, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that all who believe in him may not perish, but may have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world, in order to judge the world, but in order that the world may be saved through him.

⁸Now the Lord God had planted a Paradise of enjoyment from the beginning. In it, he placed the man whom he had formed.

¹¹And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not fail.

³Therefore, the Lord will console Zion, and he will console all its ruins. And he will turn her desert into a place of delights, and her wilderness into a garden of the Lord. Gladness and rejoicing will be found in her, thanksgiving and a voice of praise.

³And he will be like a tree that has been planted beside running waters, which will provide its fruit in its time, and its leaf will not fall away, and all things whatsoever that he does will prosper.

¹⁷Yet truly, to Adam, he said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, from which I instructed you that you should not eat, cursed is the land that you work. In hardship shall you eat from it, all the days of your life. ¹⁸Thorns and thistles shall it produce for you, and you shall eat the plants of the earth. ¹⁹By the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken. For dust you are, and unto dust you shall return.”

⁵Build houses and live in them. And plant gardens, and eat from their fruit.

²⁸For about this, he has sent to us in Babylon, saying: It is a long time. Build houses and live in them. And plant gardens, and eat from their fruits.’ ”