Unto Adam he said, &c.— Now follows the curse of the man, who is doomed to toil and labour for his food and support all the days of his life; labour upon a soil, cursed for his sake, and consequently producing no good of itself, but only thorns and thistles: labour, till his body returned again to the original dust whence it was taken, dying the death denounced upon him, as the sure consequence of his transgression.
From the curse passed upon the ground, and the labour now made necessary to reap its fruits, it has been reasonably inferred, that had man continued perfect, the earth would have produced spontaneously its fruits: and there would have been no more thorns and thistles in the ground, than there would have been evil propensities in the human mind.