Bible Strands
Genesis 3:18
Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Adam immediately after declaring the ground cursed for his disobedience. This declaration specifies the agricultural reality that will accompany his daily labor.
The words — The Hebrew terms קֹץ (Kotz, thorn) and דַרְדַּר (dar.Dar, thistle) name the unwanted vegetation the earth will now produce. The verb תַּצְמִיחַ (tatz.Mi.ach) confirms the ground will actively sprout these obstacles alongside the edible עֵשֶׂב הַשָּׂדֶה (E.sev ha.sa.Deh, field vegetation).
The thread — The motif of cultivated land yielding thorns recurs in Job 5:5 and Isaiah 7:23. The complementary theme of the earth providing vegetation for human use appears in Psalm 104:14.
Why it lands — The text states that human survival will now require overcoming persistent natural resistance. It establishes that labor will no longer be effortless but will demand constant struggle against the cursed ground.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
Cross-references
- Job 5:5 The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
- Psalms 104:14 He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:
- Isaiah 7:23 And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.
- Matthew 13:7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings.
- Joshua 23:13 know for sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become for you a snare and a trap, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the LORD your God has given you.
- Job 31:40 then let briers grow instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” Thus conclude the words of Job.
- Proverbs 22:5 Thorns and snares lie on the path of the perverse; he who guards his soul stays far from them.
- Isaiah 5:6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”
- Isaiah 32:13 and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers—even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.
- Jeremiah 4:3 For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among the thorns.