Genesis 3:17

Summary

God addresses Adam directly, stating the reason for judgment: he listened to his wife's voice and ate from the forbidden tree. As a consequence, the ground itself is declared cursed, and Adam will now obtain food from it only through toil, for the duration of his life.

Key words

• 'a.Mar ("he said", H0559) — qal perfect, marks the completed speech-act introducing the divine pronouncement to Adam specifically (note the preceding le-Adam, "to Adam").
• sha.ma'.Ta ("you listened", H8085G) — qal perfect, 2nd person masculine; combined with le-Kol ("to the voice of") it frames obedience/listening as the core charge, not merely the act of eating.
• tzi.vi.Ti ("I commanded", H6680) — piel perfect, the intensive stem underscoring the deliberateness and force of the original prohibition that Adam violated.
• 'a.ru.Rah ("cursed", H0779) — qal passive participle, feminine singular, agreeing with ha'adamah ("the ground"); the participle form marks a resulting state rather than a single completed action.
• 'i.tza.Von ("pain/toil", H6093) — masculine singular noun describing the manner in which food will now be obtained, governed by the preposition be- ("in/with").

What the text says

The verse opens with u-le-Adam amar ("and to Adam he said"), syntactically isolating Adam as the addressee before the causal clause begins. The particle ki introduces the grounds for judgment: "because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree." The verb shama'ta ("you listened") is paired with le-qol 'ishtekha ("to the voice of your wife") — the accusation centers on the act of listening/heeding, with eating (tokhal) narrated afterward through the narrative vav, showing eating as a consequence of listening rather than an isolated act.

The declaration of judgment itself uses a passive participle, 'arurah ("cursed"), agreeing grammatically with the feminine noun ha'adamah ("the ground"). This participle construction presents the curse as a state affecting the ground rather than a finite verbal action performed by God at that moment. The phrase ba'avurekha ("for your sake/because of you", from H5668) ties this state explicitly to Adam. The final clause specifies the mode of sustenance — be-'itzavon tokhalenah ("in pain/toil you will eat it") — using the imperfect tokhal to indicate an ongoing, repeated future condition, closed by kol yemei chayeikha ("all the days of your life"), marking duration for the remainder of Adam's life.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew ba'avurekha ("because of you / for your sake", H5668) is rendered in the LXX as ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις σου ("in your works"), and the Vulgate follows this reading with in opere tuo ("in your work"). This differs from the Hebrew, which attributes the curse to Adam's person/cause rather than to his deeds or works.