teshukah, “desire,” strong’s H8669

The first occurrence.

To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your pain 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

The primitive root.

Strong’s H8669, teshukah, a concrete noun meaning, “desire;” from Strong’s H7783 שוק shuk, a primitive root meaning, “to run over or after.” The 3-letter root is shin + vav + quph.

shin ש = two front teeth, sharp press, eat, two, again
vav ו = tent peg, add, secure, hook
quph ק = sun on the horizon, condense, circle, time

The story: Repetition (shin) of the established (vav, as a tent peg establishes the tent) circuit (quph, as the sun on the horizon is completing its daily circuit). This is the root for the Hebrew words translated river, rushing, overflow, drink, trough, and marrow. The idea is of the annual overflow of the river’s banks during the cyclical rainy season which returns year after year.

You have remembered the earth, and watered her (shuk), greatly enriching her, with the river of God that is full of water. Psa 65:9

According to Hebrew scholarship the rain desires to flood the earth, but God restrains it (Gen 9:11). The sense that the root meaning, to run over, gives to teshukah, is that desire floods the soul with longing.

To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your pain 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

Woman desires to rule over man, but man rules over her with love (Mat 20:25-26).

If you do well, shall it not be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at the door; and to you is its desire, but you must rule over it. Gen 4:7

Sin desires to rule over us, but we must rule over it, just as God rules over the rain.