God’s Word for You
Genesis 3:16 The pain of all women
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, September 21, 2026
16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
God’s judgments on the man and woman need to be identified before we can apply them correctly. Was this purely a punitive punishment, done in anger, to change the life of the woman (in this case) and all women after her, with no goal in mind apart from punishment?
This cannot be the case, because Adam and Eve had heard the judgment that was just pronounced on the devil. This included the crushing of his head, which is his power in the world, including the terrible and final power of death. Luther taught his students: “This punishment is inflicted on the woman, but it is a happy and joyful punishment, because it is not out of harmony with the earlier verdict which was pronounced upon Satan. If this stands, that the head of the serpent must be crushed, then the hope for resurrection from the dead is sure. Then whatever is inflicted on the human race is bearable” (LW 1:198).
The punishment that was threatened for the sin that she committed was the punishment of death (Genesis 2:17, 3:3). Now that Eve and her husband had sinned, God does not change that punishment or add to it.
Therefore this judgment and punishment on Eve and upon all women is a chastening, meant to correct sinful inclinations and behaviors, in the same way as the judgment and punishment on Adam. This chastening is to be a constant reminder of the sin that makes women subject to death. But because God is gracious and loving, he grants and imposes these reminders so that his dear daughters will be made conscious of sin, and turn to him for forgiveness. This repentance is possible on account of the saving message of the gospel, which has now been proclaimed: The devil’s power will be crushed by the descendant of Eve.
The first specific chastisement is that for women, their pain in childbearing is increased. It is not that childbearing was intended to be difficult from the beginning, but from the time of the fall, the reminder of sin and its curses characterizes “each conception, each pregnancy, each birth—the whole process of bearing and rearing children” (Jeske). All of the time that a woman devotes to her children will be filled with many pains and even dangers. But this is only according to the flesh, since Eve has already been given the joyful promise of the resurrection and eternal life without pain or grief of any kind.
Secondly she and every woman is told, “And your desire will be for your husband,” or, “To your husband will be your desire.” When Eve sinned, she was trying to act independently apart from her husband. She took the initiative and even assumed the position of leadership in the sin itself. But this attempt and striving on her part brought her no joy, no satisfaction, and only a condemned status. It brought her sorrow, pain, and the sentence of death.
But in the beginning, she had been created to be a fitting helper to the man, and God did not change this even after they sinned, for as Paul says, “The woman was created for the man” (1 Corinthians 11:9). So her natural desire for her own husband will continue. But now that there is also sin in all flesh, there would be other things at work: selfishness and the inability to carry out submission to her husband in perfect love. And God also says, “He will rule over you.” The husband’s role will also be tainted with sin; some husbands will be selfish, or ranting or jealous, or every kind of chauvinistic. Some husbands will seem or be heartless or dismissive of their wives.
This verse does not establish the headship of the husband in marriage; this was already done in Genesis 2. Here God simply reaffirms what he already laid down between husband and wife, man and woman, parents and children, and even the relationships of neighbor to neighbor. These things fall under the Fourth and Sixth Commandments. What Eve and all women must remember is that the great glory of motherhood was not removed on account of sin, but now the pain that God has added is a chastisement, along with the other crosses that we carry, to keep our attention focused on the cross of Christ, the forgiveness of all of our sins, and the promise of the resurrection to eternal life. A mother also has this promise, that even though her physical and romantic relationship with her husband ends in death, her Christian friendship with her husband will continue in heaven, but her mother-child relationship with her children will remain forever. For even after the ascension of Jesus, Mary his mother is still called “the mother of Jesus” as she prayed and worshiped him with the apostles and the other women (Acts 1:14).
Since we are disciplined by our loving heavenly Father in order to keep our attention fixed firmly on our Savior from sin, we are blessed even as we have these painful things happen. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18: “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.