Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 3:5

"for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil." — Genesis 3:5 (ASV)

You shall be as gods. —Rather, as God, as Elohim himself, in the particular quality of knowing good and evil. It was a lofty enticement that the tempter offered. Eve, who at first had answered correctly and still knew nothing of falsehood, dallied with the temptation and was lost.

However, we must not comment too severely on her conduct. It was not an ignoble desire that led her astray: she longed for more knowledge and greater perfection. She even wished to rise above the level of her nature. But the means she used were in violation of God’s command, and so she fell.

And, as usual, the tempter kept the promise to the ear. Eve knew good and evil, but only by feeling evil within herself. It was by moral degradation, and not by intellectual insight, that her ambitious wish was fulfilled.