When passing the death sentence, God also stated to Adam: “Cursed is the ground on your account. In pain you will eat its produce all the days of your life. And thorns and thistles it will grow for you, and you must eat the vegetation of the field.” (Genesis 3:17, 18) Thus Adam and Eve lost the prospect of making the uncultivated earth into a paradise. Expelled from Eden, they had to concentrate their energies on wresting food from ground that had been cursed.

How relieved Noah and his family must have felt after the Flood as they came out of the ark onto a cleansed earth! How comforting to find that the curse on the ground had been lifted, making agricultural activity so much easier! Indeed, Lamech’s prophecy proved true, and Noah lived up to the meaning of his name. (Genesis 8:21)