The garden, located “in Eden, toward the east,” had an entrance on its eastern side. It was here that cherubs were stationed with the flaming blade of a sword, after Adam’s sin, to block man’s access to the tree of life in the middle of the garden. (Ge 2:8; 3:24)

Although the Bible does not state how long the cherubs remained to guard the way of the tree of life, it may have been that such an arrangement existed until the Flood, 1,656 years after the creation of Adam.