Genesis 3:16

Unto the woman he said,.... The woman receives her sentence next to the serpent, and before the man, because she was first and more deeply in the transgression, and was the means of drawing her husband into it.

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

I will greatly multiply, or certainly, as the repetition of the same word implies. And thy conception, in diverse pains and infirmities peculiar to thy sex; i.e. Thou shalt have many, and those ofttimes, false and fruitless conceptions, and abortive births; and whereas thou mightest commonly have had many children at one conception, as some few women yet have, now thou shalt ordinarily undergo all the troubles and pains of conception, breeding, and birth, for every child which thou hast. Or, thy sorrows and thy conception, by a figure called hendiaduo, are put for thy sorrows in conception, or rather in child-bearing, which the Hebrew word here used signifies, , . Aristotle, in his Histor. Animal. 7, 9, observes, that women bring forth young with more pain than any other creatures. Bring forth children, or bear, for the word notes all the pains and troubles which women have, both in the time of child-bearing, and in the act of bringing forth. Sons, and daughters too, both being comprehended in the Hebrew word Sons, as . Thy desire shall be to thy husband; thy desires shall be referred or submitted to thy husband’ s will and pleasure to grant or deny them, as he sees fit. Which sense is confirmed from , where the same phrase is used in the same sense. And this punishment was both very proper for her that committed so great an error, as the eating of the forbidden fruit was, in compliance with her own desire, without asking her husband’ s advice or consent, as in all reason she should have done in so weighty and doubtful a matter; and very grievous to her, because women’ s affections use to be vehement, and it is irksome to them to have them restrained or denied. Seeing, for want of thy husband’ s rule and conduct, thou wast seduced by the serpent, and didst abuse that power I gave thee together with thy husband to draw him to sin, thou shalt now be brought down to a lower degree, for he shall rule thee; not with that sweet and gentle hand which he formerly used, as a guide and counsellor only, but by a higher and harder hand, as a lord and governor, to whom I have now given a greater power and authority over thee than he had before, (which through thy pride and corruption will be far more uneasy unto thee than his former empire was), and who will usurp a further power than I have given him, and will, by my permission, for thy punishment, rule thee many times with rigour, tyranny, and cruelty, which thou wilt groan under, but shalt not be able to deliver thyself from it. See .

Genesis 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.Ver. 16. I will greatly multiply thy sorrow.] The greatest of sorrows this is, as we are given to understand, both out of divine and human writings. "I had rather die in battle ten times over, than bring forth but once only," said Medea in the tragedy. But we have a better example, in the Ecclesiastical History, of a Roman lady, called Sabina; who, being great with child, was cast in prison for the profession of Christ’ s truth. Now when the time came that she should be delivered, and she cried out for extremity of pain, the keeper of the prison asked her why she made such a stir now; and how she would, two or three days hence, endure to die at a stake, or by the sword. She answered, "Now I suffer as a woman, the punishment of my sin; but then I shall not suffer, but Christ shall suffer in me." In peace offerings there might be oil mixed, not so in sin offerings. In our sufferings for Christ there is joy, not so when we suffer for our sins. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth.] And in sorrow shalt thou bring up, after the birth. Children are certain cares, but uncertain comforts. Eve had a great catch of it, when she had got a man-child of the Lord, she called him Cain, a possession, as David did Absalom, his father’ s peace. But “ Fallitur augurio spes bona saepe suo .” Excellently St Gregory, Ante partum liberi sunt onerosi, in partu dolorosi, post partum laboriosi . And he shall rule over thee áôãê.] Yet not with rigour. She must, though to her grief and regret, be subject to all her husband’ s lawful commands and restraints. But he must carry himself as a man of knowledge towards her, and make her yoke as easy as may be. It is remarkable that when the apostle had bid "wives, submit to your own husbands," &c.; he doth not say, Husbands, rule over your wives, for that they will do fast enough without bidding; but, "Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter unto them." Decies in bello mort mallem quam parere vel semel adhue. - Euripid. Job. Manlii, loc. com., p. 124. Liberi sunt dulcis acerbitas, seu - ut Tertul. loquitur - amarissima voluptas

(16) Unto the woman he said.—The woman is not cursed as the serpent was, but punished as next in guilt; and the retribution is twofold. First, God greatly multiplies “her sorrow and her conception,” that is, her sorrow generally, but especially in connection with pregnancy, when with anguish and peril of life she wins the joy of bringing a man into the world. But also “thy desire shall be to thy husband.” In the sin she had been the prime actor, and the man had yielded her too ready an obedience. Henceforward she was to live in subjection to him; yet not unhappy, because her inferiority was to be tempered by a natural longing for the married state and by love towards her master.—Among the heathen the punishment was made very bitter by the degradation to which woman was reduced; among the Jews the wife, though she never sank so low, was nevertheless purchased of her father, was liable to divorce at the husband’s will, and was treated as in all respects his inferior. In Christ the whole penalty, as St. Paul teaches, has been abrogated (Galatians 3:28), and the Christian woman is no more inferior to the man than is the Gentile to the Jew, or the bondman to the free.

Verse 16. Unto the woman he said] She being second in the transgression is brought up the second to receive her condemnation, and to hear her punishment: I will greatly multiply, or multiplying I will multiply; i.e., I will multiply thy sorrows, and multiply those sorrows by other sorrows, and this during conception and pregnancy, and particularly so in parturition or child-bearing. And this curse has fallen in a heavier degree on the woman than on any other female. Nothing is better attested than this, and yet there is certainly no natural reason why it should be so; it is a part of her punishment, and a part from which even God's mercy will not exempt her. It is added farther, Thy desire shall be to thy husband -thou shalt not be able to shun the great pain and peril of child-bearing, for thy desire, thy appetite, shall be to thy husband; and he shall rule over thee, though at their creation both were formed with equal rights, and the woman had probably as much right to rule as the man; but subjection to the will of her husband is one part of her curse; and so very capricious is this will often, that a sorer punishment no human being can well have, to be at all in a state of liberty, and under the protection of wise and equal laws.

16. I will greatly multiply] The sentence upon the woman deals with the two aspects of the married woman’s life, as wife and as mother. The story explains the pains of child-bearing as the penalty for the Fall. The possession of children is the Eastern woman’s strongest passion. The sentence upon the woman gratifies her desire, but crosses it with sorrow. The penalty brings also its blessing; and the blessing its discipline. thy sorrow] Better, a Driver, “thy pain,” as the word, elsewhere used only in vv. 17, 29, is evidently not restricted to mental distress. thy conception] Lat. conceptus tuos. But LXX τὸνστεναγμόνσου = “thy groaning,” according to a reading which differs by a very slight change in two Hebrew letters. This is preferred by some commentators, who represent that in the Israelite world a numerous family was regarded as a sign of God’s blessing, and not in the light of a penalty. But the change is needless. The sentence both upon the man and upon the woman is not so much punitive as disciplinary. The woman’s vocation to motherhood was her highest privilege and most intense happiness. The pains and disabilities of child-bearing, which darken the mystery of many a woman’s life, are declared to be the reminder that pain is part of God’s ordinance in the world, and that, in the human race, suffering enters largely into the shadow of sin. in sorrow] viz. “in pain” as above. thy desire, &c.] LXX ἡἀποστροφήσου, i.e. “thy turning or inclination,” with a very slight change of one letter in the Hebrew. But, again, there is no need to alter the reading. The two clauses present the antithesis of woman’s love and man’s lordship. Doubtless, there is a reference to the never ending romance of daily life, presented by the passionate attachment of a wife to her husband, however domineering, unsympathetic, or selfish he may be. But the primary reference will be to the condition of subservience which woman occupied, and still occupies, in the East; and to the position of man, as head of the family, and carrying the responsibility, as well as the authority, of “rule.” This is emphasized in the Latin sub viri potestate eris.

16. Unto the woman he said — A fourfold sentence: 1) multiplied pains of conception and pregnancy; 2) the pangs of childbirth; 3) the desire of the husband; and 4) the subjection to the authority of the man.