Still speaking of the ground as cursed, God continues his judgment: thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you.

Thorns and thistles occurs again as a word pair in Hos 10.8. The exact plants named here are not certain. They are said to grow profusely in the dry ground of Palestine. In most areas of the world there are briars and other thorny plants that grow in abundance. The effect of these plants is to form an overgrowth and thus crowd out and hinder food crops from growing. Accordingly terms for any kinds of obstructive weeds are more important than their physical qualities. One translation expresses this clause as “Prickly vines and weeds will grow and cover your food garden.” If a descriptive phrase is required for thorns, it may be possible to say, for example, “plants with points,” “plants with sharp barbs,” or “plants that stick the fingers.” Bring forth means that the ground, the soil, will “produce, cause to grow” these obstacles to raising crops or food. However, the translation should not give the impression that these are all that the ground will produce.

To you or “for you” keeps the man in focus as the object of this punishment. It may not need to be represented in translation.

And you shall eat the plants of the field: plants (as in 1.29-30) is a general term including vegetables, grass, cereal, grains, and weeds, but the focus is upon those plants that are used for human food. These plants were grown formerly in the garden, but now they are called plants of the field, as they will have to be grown in “fields” in contrast to “in the garden of Eden.” Good News Translation and others understand “fields” to mean the open country, and so these are “wild plants,” or as one translation says, “things that grow by themselves in the bush.” Others take “fields” to mean areas where agriculture is carried on, and so the plants are “field crops,” that is, food that comes from harvesting in the fields. Either sense is suitable.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .