Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/185

 husband desire] It is quite unnecessary to give up the rare but expressive of the Heb. for the weaker. of G, etc. (v.i.). It is not, however, implied that the woman's sexual desire is stronger than the man's (Kn. Gu.); the point rather is that by the instincts of her nature she shall be bound to the hard conditions of her lot, both the ever-recurring pains of child-bearing, and subjection to the man.—while he (on his part) shall rule over thee] The idea of tyrannous exercise of power does not lie in the vb.; but it means that the woman is wholly subject to the man, and so liable to the arbitrary treatment sanctioned by the marriage customs of the East. It is noteworthy that to the writer this is not the ideal relation of the sexes (cf. 2$18. 23$). There is here certainly no trace of the matriarchate or of polyandry (see on 2$24$).

17-19. The man's sentence.—The hard, unremitting toil of the husbandman, wringing a bare subsistence from the grudging and intractable ground, is the standing evidence of a divine curse, resting, not, indeed, on man himself, but on the earth for his sake. Originally, it had provided him with all kinds of fruit good for food,—and this is the ideal state of things; now it yields nothing spontaneously but thorns and briars; bread to eat can only be extorted in the sweat of the brow,—and this is a curse: formerly man had been a gardener, now he is a fellaḥ. It does not appear that death itself is part of the curse. The name death is avoided; and the fact is referred to as part of the natural order of things,—the inevitable 'return' of man to the ground whence he was taken. The question whether man would have lived for ever if he had not sinned is one to which the narrative furnishes no answer (Gu.).—17. And to the man] v.i. The sentence is introduced by a formal recital of the offence.—Cursed is the ground] As

17. Point ; there is no conceivable reason why should be a proper name here (cf. 2$20$ 3$21$).—  ] G reads (see v.$11$) .—] G, Σ. V read, Θ. . The phrase is characteristic of J; out of 22 instances in the Hex., only about 3 can be assigned