17 But to Adam he said, “Because you obeyed the voice of⁵² your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ the ground is cursed because of you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grain of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”

17 And to Adam he said, “Because you listened to the word of your wife, and ate of the fruit of the tree concerning which I commanded you saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed be the earth because it did not show you your guilt; by toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life 18 Thorns and thistles it shall sprout and produce because of you; and you shall eat the plants that are upon the surface of the field” Adam answered and said, “I beseech by the mercy before you, O Lord Let me not be reckoned before you as cattle, that I should eat the grass of the surface of the field I will arise and labor with the labor of my hands, and I will eat of the food of the earth; and thus let there be a distinction before you between the children of men and the offspring of cattle” 19 By the labor of your hand you shall eat food until you return to the dust from which you were created, because dust you are, and to dust you will return; but from the dust you are destined to arise to render an account and a reckoning of all you have done, on the day of great judgment”

251 "And thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread." He here speaks of the herb of the field and of bread, as if they were synonymous, or identical with one another. The herb of the field is the food of the irrational animal; but the irrational animal is a worthless creature, which has been deprived of right reason. The outward senses are also irrational, though they are part of the soul. But the mind, which is eager for the attainment of those things which are the objects of the outward sense by means of the irrational outward senses, does not attain its desires without labour and sweat; for the life of the foolish man is very full of distress and very burdensome, since he is always aiming at and greedily coveting the things which give pleasure, and all such things as wickedness is wont to do.