What did God mean by this statement?

Question

In Genesis 3:16, God says to Eve:

"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."

Exactly What did God mean by this?

Answer 1

God did not say that. Men desiring to the rule the world and harness what they are not a part of (life giving birth) and what they could not understand wrote that in an effort to diminish women's power and mystery. The entire bible is full of misogynistic attitudes and seems to have been written for the sole purpose of making everyone feel horrible about their very existence, but especially women. If it is a punishment for Eve's sin...why do all mammals have difficulty in birth? Spare me......this is the biological design. Not punishment from the skydaddy. Men simply wanted the power. All the world at one time worshipped the Great Mother...God was a woman. In order to usurp the power they had to demonize woman....and oh what a good job they did.

I have a hard time swallowing the fact that the fall of mankind was due to a woman with an eating disorder that couldn't resist an apple.

Answer 2

God was angry that Adam and Eve had sinned. So he said to Eve that now when she has children, she'll give birth to them in pain. That is woman's punishment for sin. Yet we still want to have children w/ our husbands, and our husbands will rule over us. Meaning that they are to be the head of the house....BUT they need to be leading us w/ love. Not like a tyrant. God says that elsewhere in His Word.

Someone answered this question before, saying: "Woman's only purpose is for childbearing...". This is NOT true.

Read Genesis 2:18-23. It says women also keep men company. We are worth more than just objects that produce children. Without women, men would die. If a man thinks women are under men, he is completely wrong, and doesn't deserve a wife.

Answer 3

The pain referred to is not restricted to physical pain. It also involves the emotional pain of raising children. And if you're a parent, you've had your heart broken in one way or another, true?

As far as the desiring and ruling, I look at it this way: We've all heard of women who consistently choose men who treat them badly, falling for those charismatic rotters. And women sometimes make really rotten choices when it comes to men, choosing their lovers over their children, their families, their careers, etc.

The whole ruling thing, I think, describes the neverending power struggle between a man and a woman because when sin entered the world, it distorted the healthy relationship that existed between Adam, Eve and God up until that time. We were meant to be helpmeets to each other, not one having authority over the other.

Make sense?

Have a great day!

Answer 4

Its Eves punishment, for disobeying Adam.
Adam told eve not to eat of the fruit of the tree in the mist of the garden.
Eve didn't have to suffer the pain of childbearing, at the time.
So God knew how painful it,and it was a reminder to eve, of what God can do.
And from then on she was subject to her husband, and has to obey him from then on.. because of her disobedience to Adam

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

Exactly what part of this don't you understand? Based on some of the responses, maybe you should have asked "why" God made this statement. In any case, He meant what He said. I was with my wife when both of my sons were born, and I must say that God certainly wasn't joking. I wouldn't want to experience that kind of pain for anything. I felt really bad for my wife. And yes- I did cry for her,too

Answer 7

Yes it means what it says. God was pissed off at Eve and cursed her with great pains (and yes, we're paying for them today, for those who believe). However, I would recommend that if you are seriously getting into this God stuff that you get a King James version of the Bible, not a 'common or good day' version. The King James version is a translation that was done by 2 separate groups of the most scholarly of people who independently came to the same conclusions of how to translate sections of the Bible. Also, join a Bible study group and ASK EVERY QUESTION that crosses your mind.

Answer 8

Well, 'God' didn't write that.

That was written by some old Jewish man thousands of years ago...probably in an attempt to keep women in the home and subservient to men.

Only God and Eve know what they said to one another. Genesis was written by men a LONG time after it actually happened (IF it happened that way).

Answer 9

1Ti 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.


Chew on this. If Adam was not deceived why did he eat ?

To answer your question. Eve did not listen to her husband. Simple but true. Why did Adam eat of the tree?

Answer 10

"Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

I have heard a critical translation of this text would mean that the desire of the woman would be to want to "take over authority", but that "this shall not be the case". That the relationship was to be patriarchal and not matriarchal.