King James Bible
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
God identifies a specific tree whose fruit would grant moral discernment—the ability to determine good from evil independently. This tree represents a boundary between innocent dependence on God and autonomous moral judgment, standing as the sole prohibition in Eden. The command is direct and absolute, establishing humanity's first moral test through a simple dietary restriction. This prohibition creates the possibility for obedience or disobedience, introducing moral agency and free will into the human experience. The consequence is stated with emphatic certainty in Hebrew ('dying you shall die'), warning of death as the inevitable result of disobedience. While physical death came later, the immediate spiritual separation from God fulfilled this warning, fundamentally altering humanity's relationship with the Creator.