New English Translation
Genesis 3:18
18It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grain of the field.
Genesis 3:18 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
- New International Version (NIV)It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
- English Standard Version (ESV)thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.
Context of Genesis 3:18
16To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you.” 17But to Adam he said, “Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grain of the field. 19By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.” 20The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.
Read all of Genesis 3Genesis 3:18 word by word
וְק֥וֹץ וְדַרְדַּ֖ר תַּצְמִ֣יחַֽ לָ֑ךְ וְאָכַלְתָּ֖ אֶת־עֵ֥שֶׂב הַשָּׂדֶֽה׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Genesis 3:18
- Joshua 23:13know for certain that the Lord our God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. They will trap and ensnare you; they will be a whip that tears your sides and thorns that blind your eyes until you disappear from this good land the Lord your God gave you.
- Job 5:5The hungry eat up his harvest, and take it even from behind the thorns, and the thirsty swallow up their fortune.
- Job 31:40then let thorns sprout up in place of wheat, and in place of barley, weeds!” The words of Job are ended.
- Proverbs 22:5Thorns and snares are in the path of the perverse, but the one who guards himself keeps far from them.
- Proverbs 24:31I saw that thorns had grown up all over it, the ground was covered with weeds, and its stone wall was broken down.
- Isaiah 5:6I will make it a wasteland; no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, and thorns and briers will grow there. I will order the clouds not to drop any rain on it.
- Isaiah 7:23At that time every place where there had been a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels will be overrun with thorns and briers.
- Isaiah 32:13Mourn over the land of my people, which is overgrown with thorns and briers, and over all the once-happy houses in the city filled with revelry.
- Jeremiah 4:3Yes, the Lord has this to say to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: “Like a farmer breaking up hard unplowed ground, you must break your rebellious will and make a new beginning; just as a farmer must clear away thorns lest the seed is wasted, you must get rid of the sin that is ruining your lives.
- Jeremiah 12:13My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds. They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it. They will be disappointed in their harvests because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger.
- Matthew 13:7Other seeds fell among the thorns, and they grew up and choked them.
- Hebrews 6:8But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is useless and about to be cursed; its fate is to be burned.
- Job 1:21He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord be blessed!”
- Psalms 90:3You make mankind return to the dust, and say, “Return, O people!”
- Psalms 104:2He covers himself with light as if it were a garment. He stretches out the skies like a tent curtain,
- Romans 14:2One person believes in eating everything, but the weak person eats only vegetables.
Commentaries on Genesis 3:18
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 18Thorns also and thistles, etc. - Instead of producing nourishing grain and useful vegetables, noxious weeds shall be peculiarly prolific, injure the ground, choke the good seed, and mock the hopes of the husbandman; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field - thou shalt no longer have the privilege of this garden of delights, but must go to the common champaign country, and feed on such herbs as thou canst find, till by labor and industry thou hast raised…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 8-21Verses 8-21 - XVI. The Judgment 15. שׁוּף shûp “bruise, wound.” ͂ (= ͂ ?) tērein ̓́ ektribein Job 9:17, ͂ katapatein Psalm 139:11, ́ suntribein Romans 16:20. 16. תשׁוּקה teshûqâh “desire, inclination.” ́ apostrofee ̓́ epistrophē Genesis 3:8-13; the sentence pronounced upon each, Genesis 3:14-19; and certain particulars following thereupon, Genesis 3:20-21. Genesis 3:8-9 The voice, we conceive, is the thunder of the approach of God and his call to Adam…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 16-19Verses 16-19 The woman, for her sin, is condemned to a state of sorrow, and of subjection; proper punishments of that sin, in which she had sought to gratify the desire of her eye, and of the flesh, and her pride. Sin brought sorrow into the world; that made the world a vale of tears. No wonder our sorrows are multiplied, when our sins are so. He shall rule over thee, is but God's command, Wives, be subject to your own husbands. If man had not sinned, he…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 17-19God emphasized his first command not to eat the fruit by mentioning eating several times in 3:17–19. The judgment made it harder for humans to get food. This matched their sin of eating what God had forbidden. cursed is the ground: The man's relationship with the ground (see study note on 2:7) became hostile as judgment affected his main role (2:5, 15). He must work hard to cultivate the ground, but with less success than before. Human sin impacts all of…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 17-1917-19. unto Adam he said--made to gain his livelihood by tilling the ground; but what before his fall he did with ease and pleasure, was not to be accomplished after it without painful and persevering exertion.Read the comment
Topics related to Genesis 3:18
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Genesis 3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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