H2188 H2188
Sweat, perspiration; toil's physical cost after the Fall (Genesis 3:19)
This noun appears in God's curse to Adam in Genesis 3:19: 'By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.' Sweat symbolizes the toilsome labor now required to extract food from cursed ground. What should have been joyful cultivation becomes exhausting drudgery. The term captures the physical cost of post-Fall work—not work itself (Adam worked before the Fall) but its burdensome, frustrating character. Aramaic and Syriac cognates confirm the meaning: perspiration from strenuous effort.
Senses
1. sense 1 — Sweat or perspiration in Genesis 3:19, symbolizing toilsome labor after the Fall. The phrase 'by the sweat of your face' contrasts pre-Fall gardening with post-curse agricultural struggle. The multilingual coordination (French 'sueur,' Spanish 'sudor') emphasizes the physical cost of extracting sustenance from resistant earth. This isn't work per se but work's exhausting, frustrating burden—the price of disobedience. 1×
AR["بِ-عَرَقِ"]·ben["ঘামে"]·DE["im-Schweiß"]·EN["In-sweat-of"]·FR["Dans-sueur-de"]·heb["ב-זעת"]·HI["पसीने-में"]·ID["Dengan-peluh"]·IT["In-sweat-di"]·jav["kaliyan-kèringeting"]·KO["에-땀"]·PT["No-suor"]·RU["В-поте"]·ES["Con-sudor-de"]·SW["Kwa-jasho-la"]·TR["-terinde"]·urd["پسینے-میں"]
Related Senses
H3808 1. simple negation (not) (4839×)G1722 1. locative: in, within (2442×)H1004b 1. house, dwelling, building (2015×)G3756 1. not (negation particle) (1635×)H4480a 1. source or separation (1198×)H5892b 1. city, town (1093×)G1519 1. direction: into, to, toward (1061×)H3427 1. Qal: to dwell, inhabit (937×)G1537 1. from, out of (source/origin) (886×)H8034 1. Name (designation / identifier) (856×)G3361 1. subjective negation (not) (834×)G1909 1. on, upon (spatial surface) (757×)H0369 1. existential negation: there is not (738×)H5869a 1. in the eyes/sight of (evaluative) (734×)H5650 1. Servant, attendant, subject (723×)H0408 1. prohibitive negation do-not (712×)G2443 1. so that, in order that (purpose/result) (665×)G0575 1. from (649×)G1223 1. through, by means of (582×)H3541 1. thus, so, in this manner (569×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† [זֵעָה] n.f. sweat (NH זִיעָה (Levy), better זֵיעָה (Jastr); Aramaic דֵּיעְתָּא, ܕܽܘܥܬܳܐ )—בְּזֵעַת אַפֶּיךָ תֹּאכַל לֶחֶם Gn 3:19 (J).