ris3n's Apologetics Codex
Genesis 3.19
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Passage

Genesis 3.19

Book: Genesis · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

17. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18. thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19. in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

  1. And the man called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21. And Jehovah God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed them. (Genesis 3:17-21, ASV)
WEB

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

19. 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.”

  1. The man called his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all the living. 21. Yahweh God made coats of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them. (Genesis 3:17-21, WEB)
KJV

17. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; bring: Heb. cause to bud

19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

  1. And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. Eve: Heb. Chavah: that is Living 21. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. (Genesis 3:17-21, KJV)
YLT

17. And to the man He said, 'Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and dost eat of the tree concerning which I have charged thee, saying, Thou dost not eat of it, cursed [is] the ground on thine account; in sorrow thou dost eat of it all days of thy life, 18. and thorn and bramble it doth bring forth to thee, and thou hast eaten the herb of the field;

19. by the sweat of thy face thou dost eat bread till thy return unto the ground, for out of it hast thou been taken, for dust thou [art], and unto dust thou turnest back.'

  1. And the man calleth his wife's name Eve: for she hath been mother of all living. 21. And Jehovah God doth make to the man and to his wife coats of skin, and doth clothe them. (Genesis 3:17-21, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Jehovah God, completing the sentence on the man that begins "And unto Adam he said" (Genesis 3:17)
  • Audience: the man, after the sentences on the serpent (3:14-15) and the woman (3:16)
  • Location: the garden of Eden, before the expulsion (3:23-24)
  • Time period: primeval history, at the close of the curse oracles (Genesis 3:14-19)

Theological reading

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." The sentence on the man has three parts: the ground is cursed (3:17), it will bring forth thorns and thistles (3:18), and the man will labor on it until it takes him back (3:19).

What is cursed. The text does not say the man is cursed. It says "cursed is the ground for thy sake" (3:17). The man's punishment comes through his relation to the ground: work that was given in the garden "to dress it and to keep it" (2:15) becomes "toil" (3:17) and sweat, and the ground that fed him will finally receive him.

Back to where he came from. The verse looks straight back to the man's making: "Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground" (2:7). Both "dust" (Strong's H6083) and "ground" (H127, adamah) return here, and the man's name adam echoes adamah. "Return" (H7725) appears twice. The man is going back to the place he was taken from. This is the fulfilment of the warning, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (2:17). Death is not presented as natural to the man as made; it is presented as a sentence.

How Scripture carries the line. The Preacher says, "all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again" (Ecclesiastes 3:20), and adds, "the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:7). The psalmist says of living things, "Thou takest away their breath, they die, And return to their dust" (Psalm 104:29). Paul reads human death as entering through one man (Romans 5:12) and answers it with another: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:49).

Dust is not divinity. The verse is sometimes used to say that because we are made of the same matter as the universe, we are part of something eternal. Genesis grants the first half and denies the second. We are dust, but in this verse being dust is the reason we die, not a promise that we go on. The Bible's hope is not that our atoms are recycled but that the person is raised. See God Is the Eternal Atoms Objection Defeater and Resurrection of the Body.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.