Genesis 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 

biblegateway Gen 3:19

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

biblegateway Gen 3:19

By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."

biblegateway Gen 3:19

All your life you will sweat to produce food, until your dying day. Then you will return to the ground from which you came. For you were made from dust, and to the dust you will return."

biblegateway Gen 3:19

sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk, Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried; you started out as dirt, you'll end up dirt."

SABDAweb Gen 3:19

With the hard work of your hands you will get your bread till you go back to the earth from which you were taken: for dust you are and to the dust you will go back.

bibleoremus Gen 3:19

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

biblegateway Gen 3:19

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are , And to dust you shall return."

biblegateway Gen 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 

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

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 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.