Cursed Is The Ground

by Henry M. Morris, Ph.D.

"And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life" (Genesis 3:17).

The great curse which God placed on the ground because of man's deliberate rebellion against His Word is worldwide and age-long. Until sin is removed, the Curse cannot be removed.

In the new Earth, after Christ returns and all unrepentant, unbelieving sinners have been cast with Satan into the lake of fire, then-and not until then-"there shall be no more curse" (Revelation 22:3).

The Curse is not only on man ("unto dust shalt thou return"-Genesis 3:19), but also "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" under "the bondage of corruption" (or "decay," Romans 8:22-21). For the Curse was placed on "the ground," that is, on the very material out of which God had formed Adam's body (Genesis 2:7). In fact, it was the "dust of the ground"-that is, the finest particles of matter-from which everything had been made.

Plants and animals, men and women, minerals and mountains, all may grow for a time, but all eventually decay and die, because God's Curse is in the very dust of the ground from which they are formed. The principle has even come to be recognized by scientists as the "law of entropy" which has no known exception.

When Christ returns to reign in glory, however, the whole creation "shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Romans 8:21). Therefore, "we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (II Peter 3:13). HMM

This article was originally published January, 2005. "Cursed Is The Ground", Institute for Creation Research, https://www.icr.org/article/19476/ (accessed June 08, 2026).