The commandment related in these verses presupposes that man understood the language God spoke and the distinction between “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not.” The command begins positively, granting permission to eat freely from all the trees of the garden—with the exception of one. The right to free enjoyment of all the other trees is made emphatic by the intensive idiom “eating thou shalt eat,” ’akol to’kel; to a divine prohibition there is even a positive aspect.