Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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Fruitfulness was its blessing, for man's service (Ge 1:11, 29), and now barrenness was its curse, for man's punishment. It is not what it was in the day it was created. Sin turned a fruitful land into barrenness; and man, having become as the wild ass's colt, has the wild ass's lot, the wilderness for his habitation, and the barren land his dwelling, Job 39:6,Ps 68:6. Had not this curse been in part removed, for aught I know, the earth would have been for ever barren, and never produced anything but thorns and thistles. The ground is cursed, that is, doomed to destruction at the end of time, when the earth, and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up for the sin of man, the measure of whose iniquity will then be full, 2Pe 3:7,10. But observe a mixture of mercy in this sentence.
(1.) Adam himself is not cursed, as the serpent was (Ge 3:14), but only the ground for his sake. God had blessings in him, even the holy seed: Destroy it not, for that blessing is in it, Isa 65:8. And he had blessings in store for him; therefore he is not directly and immediately cursed, but, as it were, at second hand.
(2.) He is yet above ground. The earth does not open and swallow him up; only it is not what it was: as he continues alive, notwithstanding his degeneracy from his primitive purity and rectitude, so the earth continues to be his habitation, notwithstanding its degeneracy from its primitive beauty and fruitfulness.
(3.) This curse upon the earth, which cut off all expectations of a happiness in things below, might direct and quicken him to look for bliss and satisfaction only in things above.
We must not go off from this sentence upon our first parents, which we are all so nearly concerned in, and feel from, to this day, till we have considered two things:--
1. How fitly the sad consequences of sin upon the soul of Adam and his sinful race were represented and figured out by