Genesis 3:17

Genesis 3:17

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

1. “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it…”

a. hearkened [8085 * shama’][Strong: a primitive root; to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.; causatively, to tell, etc.):--X attentively, call (gather) together, X carefully, X certainly, consent, consider, be content, declare, X diligently, discern, give ear, (cause to, let, make to) hear(-ken, tell), X indeed, listen, make (a) noise, (be) obedient, obey, perceive, (make a) proclaim(-ation), publish, regard, report, shew (forth), (make a) sound, X surely, tell, understand, whosoever (heareth), witness.

b. Adam heard and obeyed the voice of his wife rather than the word of God. Eve was deceived, but Adam was not.

1). 1 Timothy 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

c. God had specifically told Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

1). Genesis 2:15-17 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

d. Wives were given to man (one wife for one man) to be a helpmeet for him. There are surely times men should listen to his wives, but there are times such as here when men should not listen to their wives. Whenever the wife tries to tell her husband to go against the direct commandment of God a man should not listen to his wife.  

2. “…cursed is the ground for thy sake…”

a. cursed [779 * ‘arar][Strong: an execration:--curse.]

b. [NASB] “…Cursed is the ground because of you;

c. Gordon Lindsay, Old Testament Series, Volume 1-A, page 20. “As a result of all these things, life was to bear inevitable sorrows.”

d. Gordon Lindsay, Old Testament Series, Volume 1-A. Page 20, “The whole earth now came under the curse. In the Garden of Eden, no weeds grew. Now, noxious thorns and thistles would spring up everywhere.”

3.  “…in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.”

a. sorrow [6093 * ‘itstsabown][Strong: pain, labour, hardship, sorrow, toil.]

b. [New Living Translation] “All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.”

c. The passage goes on in Genesis 3:19 to add, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread…” There are a number of components that figure in to cause man to struggle to get food from the ground. They are covered a little bit further in Genesis 3:19.