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(BA) Genesis 3:23
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1 August 2022 Navigate 'up to the Genesis index: index-genesis.

From the KJV:

Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.

The Hebrew verb translated here as till can in fact refer, as it does elsewhere, to tilling the ground. But it is a broader term, which can refer to work more generally and, more specifically, to serving someone as a slave. Can we read, then, that Adam is hereby made a slave to the ground, as agricultural laborers were before the last couple of centuries?

The ground is in Hebrew adamah, a term noticeably similar to Adam, who was made from it, just as isha ("woman") is noticeably similar to the man, ish, from which she was created. This here is the first stage of man's return, completed by death in verse 19, where the dead body returns to the particulate from which it was formed.

Sources
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