Genesis 3:2

We may eat of the fruit. Eve evidently understood the question in the second sense discussed above, and instead of turning away and fleeing to her husband, showed signs of wavering and doubt, and a readiness to discuss the subject further with the serpent.

God declared, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Eve changed this to, “lest ye die.” For the full certainty of the death penalty following a transgression of the command, the woman declared that death might follow such an act. The word “lest,” pen, implies inner alarm at the thought of playing with something that might prove fatal, concealed under an assumed cynical attitude toward the idea that such a thing could ever really happen. The doubt and hesitancy in Eve’s language, reflecting that of the serpent, make the motive to obedience predominantly one of the fear of death rather than of inherent love toward her beneficent Creator. Another symptom of awakening doubt in the absolute justice of God’s injunction is the fact that Eve did not mention the name of the tree, which was certainly known to her. By speaking of this tree in general terms of locality as the one being “in the midst of the garden,” she placed it almost in the same class with the other trees of her garden home.