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."

What did God mean by this?

Answer 1

God never said this. There is only one true God, the FSM (pbuhna).

Answer 2

Childbearing is VERY painful. If it weren't for medicine (not to exclude natural birthing mothers), we weak women of today would lose our minds (I have given birth)!! It was the punishment passed down by Eve for eating the forbidden fruit.

As for the desire. Women will devote themselves to their husbands more than they will God. It is not a conscious decision, it is gradual. They love their husbands. Their husband and their family becomes their world. God may be the foundation of that world, but she will listen to her husband first. This does not mean she will walk off a cliff behind him (although some will). One of the reasons God is so hard on the men in the Bible when it comes to relationships is the woman is to follow her husband in righteousness. The woman is to be the foundation of the home. To keep things serene. This keeps the husband at peace, allowing God in and be able to instruct their lives spiritually.

Answer 3

1 - It will be painful to give birth.

2 - For better of worse, you will want to stay with your husband. We see this today both in happy marriages and in abusive ones where nobody can seem to convince her to leave.

3 - "The buck stops here." will be what God expects of men. He expects men to have the final decision (and blame if things go badly)

This happened because of Adam's mistake and Eve's mistake. She believed the lie from Satan - He wasn't watching over his family as he should have been.

BTW - A similar thing happened with Abraham and Sarah. Ever tricked her into the idea of the child being born to Abraham through Hagar. And again, the husband - the person God had given the instructions to - was asleep at the wheel and instead of saying "No, that's not what God said." Just went along with the idea his wife brought him.

The foolishness of these two men has cost humanity so much in all these years. Husbands - don't let this happen to you. Obey God in what He has said to you.

Answer 4

I cannot speak for God, but I can say the way I understand it. I think this is a consequence of the curse that came through sin:

- bearing children would be painful (I believe that this applies to raising children in general, not just birth pains)

- women would be oppressed/ ruled over by men in the fallen world.

It's something that God said would happen in a world with sin and that is under the curse of sin.

Jesus came to free us from this.

Answer 5

The first part means just what it says, pain when giving birth.

"Your desire will be for your husband" means the wife will be submissive to her husband. It doesn't mean desire as we know it.

"And he will rule over you" means because Eve was the one
who was deceived by satan and had Adam per take in the deception, the husband will be over any decisions made in the household.

Answer 6

because Adam and Eve at the fruit of good and evil, they opened the world up to pain and suffering. Because of Eve's disobedience to God, he deemed that women would suffer pain when giving birth and that they would have to follow their husbands...

Answer 7

BECAUSE of her rebellion

The joy of childbirth would not be mixed with pain

The SAMENESS that was originally created and now there would be strife and dominion.

Sadly a Birth could have been ONLY a joy and Marriage could have been as TWO equals

Answer 8

It means that Eve would suffer the consequences of her sin.Not that God is vengeful but they brought sin and death upon themselves.

Answer 9

Check Rashi.

Answer 10

He meant just what He said. Good luck.