unfoldingWord_en_tn/gen/03/17.md

# Adam

The name Adam is the same as the Hebrew word for "man." Some translations say "Adam" and some say "the man." You may use either form as it refers to the same person.

# you have listened to the voice of your wife

This is an idiom. AT: "you have obeyed what your wife said" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-idiom]])

# have eaten from the tree

You can say what it was that they ate. AT: "have eaten the fruit of the tree" or "have eaten some of the fruit of the tree" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-explicit]])

# You may not eat from it

"You must not eat from it" or "Do not eat its fruit"

# cursed is the ground

The word "curse" comes first in the sentence to emphasize that the ground, which had been "good" ([Genesis 1:10](../01/09.md)), was now under God's curse. This can be stated in active form. AT: "I am cursing the ground" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-activepassive]])

# through painful work

"by doing hard work"

# you will eat from it

The word "it" refers to the ground and is a metonym for the parts of the plants, which grow in the ground, that people eat. AT: "you will eat what grows from it" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metonymy]])

# the plants of the field

Possible meanings are 1) "the plants that you take care of in your fields" or 2) "the wild plants that grow in the open fields."

# By the sweat of your face

"By doing hard work that makes your face sweat"

# you will eat bread

Here the word "bread" is a synecdoche for food in general. AT: "you will eat food" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-synecdoche]])

# until you return to the ground

"until you die and your body is put in the ground." In some cultures, they put the bodies of people who have died in a hole in the ground. Man's hard work does not end until the time of his death and burial.

# For dust you are, and to dust you will return

"I made you from soil, so your body will become soil again." Translate both occurrences of "dust" with the same word in order to show that man begins and ends in the same condition.

# translationWords

* [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/names/adam]]
* [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/curse]]
* [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/other/bread]]