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Genesis 3:17-19

创世记 3:17-19

The Passage

To Adam he said, 'Because you have listened to your wife's voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, "You shall not eat of it," the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life. It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field. By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.'

In the other language

又对亚当说：你既听从妻子的话，吃了我所吩咐你不可吃的那树上的果子，地必为你的缘故受咒诅；你必终身劳苦才能从地里得吃的。地必给你长出荆棘和蒺藜来；你也要吃田间的菜蔬。你必汗流满面才得糊口，直到你归了土，因为你是从土而出的。你本是尘土，仍要归于尘土。

Theme

Thorns and toil

Bring a question to this passage

Many readers arrive here from a real question. These are reflections for how this passage speaks to the questions people bring most often — not an answer about what will happen, but an invitation to sit with it slowly.

How do I face this season of pressure at work?

Thorns and sweat give you language for work that resists your best efforts. In this passage, labor becomes painful within the account of human disobedience; it is not a verdict that your particular workplace struggles are punishment for something you did. The ground does not yield easily, and the worker remains mortal. You do not have to pretend that pressure is pleasant or that greater effort can overcome every obstacle. These words leave room for an honest account of exhaustion, frustration, and limits before God. Where are you meeting thorns at work, and what would it mean to name their cost without making them a measure of your worth?

Carry thisThe difficulty of your work does not measure your worth.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

I want to learn to love better in this relationship.

Thorns, sweat, and dust give this passage its difficult honesty. It describes the consequences of disobedience, not how to love someone better, but it leaves little room for imagining human life as effortless or unlimited. You bring weariness and limits into a relationship, and so does the other person. Recognizing that need not excuse hurtful behavior; it can make space for truthful responsibility rather than blame. You can acknowledge the harm you cause without treating every difficulty as proof that you have failed. Nor does the passage tell you to accept mistreatment as your assigned toil. Where might owning your part, while recognizing your limits, make your love more honest?

Carry thisHonest love holds responsibility and human limits together.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

What do I need to let go of in the coming weeks?

Thorns, sweat, and dust make this a sober passage about human life. It does not specify what you should release in the coming weeks, but it leaves little room for the belief that effort can remove every difficulty. Adam's labor meets resistance, and his life has limits. You may recognize the exhaustion of expecting yourself to overcome every obstacle through greater discipline or longer hours. Letting go need not mean abandoning necessary work. It may mean questioning an expectation that being diligent should make everything manageable. The passage gives you room to acknowledge toil without pretending you are limitless. Which expectation of yourself has made ordinary human limits feel like failure?

Carry thisYour limits are real, even when your work matters.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

How can I find stillness in a busy life?

Thorns, sweat, and dust make this an uncomfortable passage to bring into a search for stillness. It does not offer a calming technique; it names the painful toil and human mortality that follow disobedience. There is room here to acknowledge that work can be genuinely exhausting, not simply poorly managed. You do not have to pretend that every demanding day is satisfying or that every obstacle can be overcome by trying harder. The words about dust also confront the fantasy of limitless strength. A pause may begin with telling the truth about your weariness. Which limit have you been reluctant to acknowledge in the way you spend your days?

Carry thisYour weariness deserves honesty, not another demand for endless strength.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

Have a different question?

Write what you are actually carrying right now, and Lectio will answer it with this passage — Genesis 3:17-19.

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Genesis 3 — in context

11God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13The LORD God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. You shall go on your belly and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

15I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”

16To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

17To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.

18It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field.

19By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

20The man called his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all the living.

21The LORD God made coats of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.

22The LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”

23Therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.

24So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim/f + cherubim are powerful angelic creatures, messengers of God with wings. See Ezekiel 10./f* at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

More from Genesis

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Work and Calling

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