And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden: they may have to be replaced by “the man and his wife.” In some languages heard the sound … walking is more naturally expressed as “heard the footsteps of…” or “heard the LORD God’s feet walking.”

Cool of the day is similar in sense to the expression in Song 2.17 and 4.6, “the day breathes.” Both expressions refer to the late afternoon and early evening, when the sun has gone down and a breeze cools the air. Good News Translation translates “that evening” and places this at the beginning of the sentence as a time setting. Bible en français courant is similar but retains the picture of the breeze blowing: “That evening when a breeze was stirring.” Revised English Bible has “at the time of the evening breeze.”

The man and his wife hid themselves: some languages require that hid themselves be expressed as a double event, first the action of moving and then the action of hiding; for example, “went and hid” or “ran away and hid.”

From the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden: from the presence is often better translated simply as “from,” as in Good News Translation, New International Version, and others. However, the expression in Hebrew is literally “from the face,” and in this context the meaning may be taken as “from his sight.” In some languages this is naturally expressed as “… hid, where they thought God would not see them.” Among the trees may be taken as “behind the trees” or “where they thought God could not see them because of the trees.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .