1 After this Satan called to his hosts, all of which came to him, and
said to him:--
2 "O, our lord, what will you do?"
3 He then said to them, "You know that this Adam, whom God created out
of the dust, is the one who has taken our kingdom, come, let us gather
together and kill him; or hurl a rock at him and at Eve, and crush them
under it."
4 When Satan's hosts heard these words, they came to the part of the
mountain where Adam and Eve were asleep.
5 Then Satan and his host took a huge rock, broad and even, and without
blemish, thinking within himself, "If there should be a hole in the
rock, when it fell on them, the hole in the rock might come over them,
and so they would escape and not die."
6 He then said to his hosts, "Take up this stone, and throw it flat on
them, so that it doesn't roll off them to somewhere else. And when you
have hurled it, get away from there quickly."
7 And they did as he told them. But as the rock fell down from the
mountain toward Adam and Eve, God commanded the rock to become a dome
over them*, that did them no harm. And so it was by God's order.
8 But when the rock fell, the whole earth quaked with it**, and was
shaken from the size of the rock.
9 And as it quaked and shook, Adam and Eve awoke from sleep, and found
themselves under a dome of rock. But they didn't know what had
happened; because when the fell asleep they were under the sky, and not
under a dome; and when they saw it, they were afraid.
10 Then Adam said to Eve, "Wherefore has the mountain bent itself, and
the earth quaked and shaken on our account? And why has this rock
spread itself over us like a tent?
11 Does God intend to plague us and to shut us up in this prison? Or
will He close the earth over us?
12 He is angry with us for our having come out of the cave, without His
order; and for our having done so of our own accord, without consulting
Him, when we left the cave and came to this place."
13 Then Eve said, "If, indeed, the earth quaked for our sake, and this
rock forms a tent over us because of our transgression, then we will be
sorry, O Adam, because our punishment will be long.
14 But get up and pray to God to let us know concerning this, and what
this rock is that is spread over us like a tent."
15 Then Adam stood up and prayed before the Lord, to let him know what
had brought about this difficult time. And Adam stood praying like
that until the morning.
* The word "dome" is used here but the text does not specifically
suggest that the covering was round--only that it covered them on all
sides, however a dome is the most likely shape that would have be able
to withstand the impact with the ground. From verse 9 that says "when
they saw it" and verse 11 that says "shut us up in this prison", we can
conclude that the dome had holes in its sides that were big enough to
let in light and air but were too small to allow Adam and Eve to
escape. Another conclusion would be that the holes were large but too
high up for Adam and Eve to reach, however the former is more likely.
** In verse 7 of the next chapter (XLIX), God tells Adam and Eve that
the ground was also lowered under them--"I commanded . . . the rock
under you to lower itself".