Read Genesis 3:16-4:26 at Bible Gateway.
Hebrew paragraph divisions
Gen 3:16 {s} Consequences for the woman (painful toil)
Gen 3:17-21 {p} Consequences for the man (painful toil)
Gen 3:22-24 {s} Exile from Elohiym’s presence is the consequence of sin
Gen 4:1-26 {s} Exile from family is the consequence of sin
The pattern common to all four of these paragraphs, is the consequences of sin. Sin is not cost-free, no matter how secret one keeps it. There is always a price to pay.
Original Hebrew
The first two consequences for sin continue defining gender roles for the woman and the man, which was begun in Gen 2:18 with God assigning man’s wife to be his helper comparable to him. They share one characteristic: each of their consequences will be painful toil for them:
Unto the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your toil and your travail; in pain you shall bring forth children; and your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you.” Gen 3:16
And unto Adam He said: “Because you have hearkened unto the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying: ‘You shall not eat of it;’ cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life.” Gen 3:17
The word “toil” in both of these verses is the same word in Hebrew: Strong’s H6093, itstsabon, painful toil: to be in pain from grief or heavy toil; pain, labor, hardship, sorrow, toil. It is from the primitive root Strong’s H6087, atsav, ayin + tsadey + bet:
ayin = the eye, thus to see, watch, look, know, understand
tsadey = trail, thus a man concealed, journey, chase, hunt
bet = house, thus house, household, family, in, within
The story the ancient Hebrew pictographs are telling is of looking ahead and seeing a lifelong journey to maintain the house and family. The sense I am getting, in its association to pain from grief or heavy toil, is of endless work: a job that is never completed. Housework, cooking, laundry, home repairs, raising crops, tending livestock, going to a job: it is the same work over and over again constantly repeating, which continues until the man and the woman return to the dust from which they were taken (Gen 3:19).
An alternate meaning of atsav according to Gesenius’ Hebrew Lexicon, is to worry or be vexed, and I think that is a very common side effect of the responsibility men and women have in caring for their family.
The traditional understanding of Gen 3:16, the woman’s painful toil, is that she will experience pain in childbirth. But I think the Hebrew makes it clear that her role of bringing forth children does not stop with just bearing them, but also raising them. And once they are adults, her pain does not cease, because it is bittersweet: she invests all her time and effort into raising competent human beings able to live on their own, who do not need her any longer, and then suffers the results of her success, to not be needed. As well as the sorrow Eve must have experienced at the death of Abel, and the banishment of Cain; i.e., trials or sorrow that come upon her children don’t just cause grief for her children, but she suffers with them as if it were her own trial or sorrow.
The husband’s painful toil is similar in that it is never-ending; with the added responsibility of knowing that the buck stops here, that his success at farming or at his career means the difference between his wife and children being able to eat or go hungry. As well as his work out in the fields (out on the job) requires him to be separated from his loved ones for their daylight hours, causing sorrow; and fathers share the same sorrow of mothers when his children experience sorrow.
These are the consequences of sin, but God in His grace extended mercy to man and woman before they ever sinned: He set aside the seventh day as a day of rest from labor from Creation. Every seventh day, men and women can lay down their burden and responsibility, and enjoy being with each other, playing, resting, and worshiping God.
And in Messiah Yeshua, we find that when we change our perspective from, my daily work is a hardship, to, my daily work is a service I am privileged to give out of a heart of love for God, we find great joy in caring for and providing for our loved ones; and the heartache, while perhaps not entirely eradicated this side of heaven, is greatly eased with His peace and joy.
For further study on site
gen 4, what we can learn about parenting from cain and abel
gen 4, josephus on cain
gen 4:3-7, the power of a choice
Genesis index of studies
For further study off site
Abel as a foreshadow of the Passover sacrifice of Messiah
Cain’s wife – who was she?
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