V. 19b. Till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
With respect to wicked men they endure an infinite number of calamities with the hope of enjoying a little morsel of pleasure. What perils by land and by sea does the merchant experience with the hope of gain? For what a small hire does the soldier sell his life. The harlot in the brothel is compelled to endure a thousand-fold greater evils than any wife in the honest home. Hence the Germans call them by a striking proverb, "the devil's martyrs;" because they of their own accord cast themselves into the greatest calamities, which they might never have experienced, if they had been willing to live a godly life. And again, what a host of evils do men, given to wine and to gluttony, bring upon themselves by their excesses, from all of which they might have lived free had they eaten and drunk more moderately.
Wherefore, well may men be lost in considering what remedy can possibly be found for the human race. Since they are so hardened by Satan that they not only do not feel their evils, but studiously follow after them and pursue them with all eagerness. For if they really did feel the evils of their ways would they not forsake them? But the fact is that such insensibility benumbs the minds of men, so that you may see them glorying in their very evils themselves. As, therefore, such wicked perverseness is found in the greatest part of mankind, that for the sake of a light and foolish pleasure they will involve themselves in sure calamities, it is wonderful that the godly do not consider these things for their good, and say within themselves, Although I must live in the midst of all these various evils, yet they must all soon end and be recompensed by another and a better life.
And this is the consolation which this sacred sentence is intended to afford. For it gives a promise that all these calamities shall have an end, and that, too, by the bruising and crushing of the "serpent's head," Till, says Moses, thou return unto the ground, ELHAADAMA. For this original word signifies the ground or earth in general. But the Hebrew word APHAR signifies, properly, recently dug or ploughed earth, or a lump of newly turned up earth. Our translation renders this original word by "dust;" that it may signify loosened or crumbled earth. For Adam was made a living man out of a clod or lump of the earth. When therefore the bonds of this clod shall be loosened, it shall return, the Lord says, to its former mould or dust.
And here again we are reminded of the manner in which, as the sins of the world increased, their punishments increased also. The original usage of committing the bodies of the dead to the earth to be dissolved again to dust was certainly a milder and human-like custom; but afterwards it became the practice of almost all nations to burn the bodies of their dead. How often also does it happen that human beings are devoured alive by wild beasts, and have the bellies of those beasts for their tombs? Hence we find enumerated among the four punishments declared by the prophet, "the teeth of wild beasts," Jer. 15:3, and also by Moses himself the poison of serpents and other venomous animals, Deut. 32:24. For so it is ever that the more insensible we are to the divine punishment of our sins, the heavier the punishments God lays upon us, to break us down and to beat in pieces our obduracy; as it is written in the Book of Leviticus, "And if ye will not yet for these things hearken unto me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power," Levit. 26:18, 19.
Thus the fall of Adam was a fall from life into death, and from soundness of body into diseases of every kind. Still the age of Adam was truly a golden age, if compared with ours. But all things degenerated by degrees, and that the great image of Daniel also plainly shows, Dan. 2:31, 35. For the nearer the world approaches its end the worse men become, and this is the reason heavier punishments are inflicted on us than on those who have lived before us. What a pertinacious war against the truth is carried on at this day by the Papists! What cruelty do they exercise against those who confess the truth! I mention not now their well nigh Satanic covetousness, perfidy and acts of violence without end. Can the punishments of such then be very far off?
Thus far Moses has been recording the punishments inflicted on Adam and his posterity on account of the sin of the fall. And though these punishments are great, yet they were milder "in the beginning" than they are now. Because those sins which were then of the positive, if I may so speak, are now increased to the superlative degree.
But before we proceed with the remaining contents of this chapter, let us pursue a little further our discussion of that passage, on which we have briefly dwelt in its place before, where it is said to the woman, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception or thy impregnation," verse 16, above. For the original word there found is HERONECHAD, which interpreters generally explain as descriptive of all those troubles and straits of mind and body which women endure from the time of conception to childbirth.
A question is here raised by some whether, as the wife is impregnated and gives birth to a child only once in a year, that one impregnation and parturition is itself a punishment? And it is also inquired, why if such be a punishment God here says, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception?" With respect to the latter, I believe the original word to be rightly translated, "I will greatly multiply thy conception," that is, thy pains and sorrows consequent upon that conception. So that it is a punishment that a woman should conceive only once in the year, and yet that one conception in the year should be laden with such numberless pains and sorrows. For if man had continued in his innocence, no doubt the fruitfulness of women would have been altogether greater. We do now find certain instances where often two, sometimes three, and occasionally four, children are brought forth at a birth.
There are universal laws of this fecundity in the brute creation. The fruitfulness of birds and of fishes is very great. Dogs, cats and sows produce a great number at a parturition. The larger beasts however produce their offspring only once in a year generally. My full belief is however that women, had there been no sin, would have been productive of a far more numerous offspring. Whereas now for the most part the most fruitful of them give birth to no more than one child in the year, to which diminished fruitfulness there is also added that unclean lust of fallen nature. All these things alike impress our minds with the magnitude of sin.