Scripture · Old Testament
Genesis 3:16
Genesis 3:16 is verse 16 of Genesis chapter 3, shown here in the Berean Standard Bible.
Berean Standard Bible
To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
Or You will desire to control your husband
King James Version
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
World English Bible
To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. You will bear children in pain. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
Read in context
Genesis 3:14–18 · Berean Standard Bible
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
17 And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
Read all of Genesis 3Hebrew words
Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Study Genesis 3:16
Cross-references
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.
Genesis 35:16Later, they set out from Bethel, and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.
Genesis 35:17During her severe labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you are having another son.”
Genesis 35:18And with her last breath—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni. But his father called him Benjamin.
1 Samuel 4:19Now Eli’s daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and about to give birth. When she heard the news of the capture of God’s ark and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband, she collapsed and gave birth, for her labor pains overtook her.
1 Samuel 4:20As she was dying, the women attending to her said, “Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son!” But she did not respond or pay any heed.
1 Samuel 4:21And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God had been captured and her father-in-law and her husband had been killed.
Psalms 48:6Trembling seized them there, anguish like a woman in labor.
Isaiah 13:8Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.
Isaiah 21:3Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.
Isaiah 26:17As a woman with child about to give birth writhes and cries out in pain, so were we in Your presence, O LORD.
Isaiah 26:18We were with child; we writhed in pain; but we gave birth to wind. We have given no salvation to the earth, nor brought any life into the world.
Isaiah 53:11After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities.
Jeremiah 4:31For I hear a cry like a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child— the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands to say, “Woe is me, for my soul faints before the murderers!”
Jeremiah 6:24We have heard the report; our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor.
Jeremiah 13:21What will you say when He sets over you close allies whom you yourself trained? Will not pangs of anguish grip you, as they do a woman in labor?
Jeremiah 22:23O inhabitant of Lebanon, nestled in the cedars, how you will groan when pangs of anguish come upon you, agony like a woman in labor.”
Jeremiah 49:24Damascus has become feeble; she has turned to flee. Panic has gripped her; anguish and pain have seized her like a woman in labor.
Micah 4:9Why do you now cry aloud? Is there no king among you? Has your counselor perished so that anguish grips you like a woman in labor?
Micah 4:10Writhe in agony, O Daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor. For now you will leave the city and camp in the open fields. You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies!
John 16:21A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.
1 Thessalonians 5:3While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
1 Timothy 2:15Women, however, will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
Genesis 4:7If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires you, but you must master it.”
Numbers 30:7and her husband hears of it but says nothing to her on that day, then the vows or pledges by which she has bound herself shall stand.
Numbers 30:8But if her husband prohibits her when he hears of it, he nullifies the vow that binds her or the rash promise she has made, and the LORD will absolve her.
Numbers 30:13Her husband may confirm or nullify any vow or any sworn pledge to deny herself.
Esther 1:20The edict the king issues will be heard throughout his vast kingdom—and so all women, from the least to the greatest, will honor their husbands.”
1 Corinthians 7:4The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.
1 Corinthians 11:3But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
1 Corinthians 14:34Women are to be silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.
Ephesians 5:22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
Ephesians 5:23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.
Ephesians 5:24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Colossians 3:18Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
1 Timothy 2:11A woman must learn in quietness and full submissiveness.
1 Timothy 2:12I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; she is to remain quiet.
Titus 2:5to be self-controlled, pure, managers of their households, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be discredited.
1 Peter 3:1Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your husbands, so that even if they refuse to believe the word, they will be won over without words by the behavior of their wives
1 Peter 3:2when they see your pure and reverent demeanor.
1 Peter 3:3Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes,
1 Peter 3:4but from the inner disposition of your heart, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight.
1 Peter 3:5For this is how the holy women of the past adorned themselves. They put their hope in God and were submissive to their husbands,
1 Peter 3:6just as Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. And you are her children if you do what is right and refuse to give way to fear.