Genesis 3:19

3:19 By the sweat of your brow ¹  you will eat food

until you return to the ground, ² 

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust, and to dust you will return.” ³ 

Genesis 4:11

4:11 So now, you are banished ⁴  from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

Genesis 20:3

20:3 But God appeared ⁵  to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead ⁶  because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.” ⁷ 

Genesis 38:20

38:20 Then Judah had his friend Hirah ⁸  the Adullamite take a young goat to get back from the woman the items he had given in pledge, ⁹  but Hirah ¹⁰  could not find her.

[3:19]  ¹ tn The expression “the sweat of your brow” is a metonymy, the sweat being the result of painful toil in the fields.

[3:19]  ² sn Until you return to the ground. The theme of humankind’s mortality is critical here in view of the temptation to be like God. Man will labor painfully to provide food, obviously not enjoying the bounty that creation promised. In place of the abundance of the orchard’s fruit trees, thorns and thistles will grow. Man will have to work the soil so that it will produce the grain to make bread. This will continue until he returns to the soil from which he was taken (recalling the creation in 2:7 with the wordplay on Adam and ground). In spite of the dreams of immortality and divinity, man is but dust (2:7), and will return to dust. So much for his pride.

[3:19]  ³ sn In general, the themes of the curse oracles are important in the NT teaching that Jesus became the cursed one hanging on the tree. In his suffering and death, all the motifs are drawn together: the tree, the sweat, the thorns, and the dust of death (see Ps 22:15). Jesus experienced it all, to have victory over it through the resurrection.

[4:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “cursed are you from the ground.” As in Gen 3:14, the word “cursed,” a passive participle from אָרָר (’arar), either means “punished” or “banished,” depending on how one interprets the following preposition. If the preposition is taken as indicating source, then the idea is “cursed (i.e., punished) are you from [i.e., “through the agency of”] the ground” (see v. 12a). If the preposition is taken as separative, then the idea is “cursed and banished from the ground.” In this case the ground rejects Cain’s efforts in such a way that he is banished from the ground and forced to become a fugitive out in the earth (see vv. 12b, 14).

[20:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “came.”

[20:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “Look, you [are] dead.” The Hebrew construction uses the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with a second person pronominal particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with by the participle. It is a highly rhetorical expression.

[20:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “and she is owned by an owner.” The disjunctive clause is causal or explanatory in this case.

[38:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “sent by the hand of his friend.” Here the name of the friend (“Hirah”) has been included in the translation for clarity.

[38:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to receive the pledge from the woman’s hand.”

[38:20]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Judah’s friend Hirah the Adullamite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.