Throughout the Bible, God makes the punishment fit the crime. When the Israelites are disheartened, refusing to enter the Promised Land and enraged against Moses and Aaron they say, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt. Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why does the Lord bring us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?" Because of Israel's fit of cowardice, their forgetfulness of the what God has done for them, God says that the Israelites will wander for 40 years in the wilderness while the children whom they said would be "prey" will enter the land and conquer it.
We see this same sort of geometry in God's judgment on the serpent, Eve and Adam. The serpent acted as an enemy to Eve in tempting her to do this thing, so the serpent will be an enemy to her and to her children in the future. (In Revelation we see this motif appear again when the dragon, a great serpent, seeks to swallow up the child of a woman. The woman perhaps standing for Jerusalem...) Now let's look at Eve. Her "desire will be for her husband." When she ate the fruit she did not keep it for herself but shared it with Adam. In other words in her disobedience she was looking for a collaborator. She was not free and independent and bold but sought the approval of her husband. So God's judgment on her is that she will continue to seek Adam's approval "and he will rule over you." Adam's judgment is harder for me to understand. The ground is cursed because of Adam's sin. Is this because he turned his back on all the good growing things of the garden and takes what is forbidden instead? Is the idea that since Adam turned his back on the good earth of Eden and all its blessings, the good earth will respond in kind, turning its back, that is, denying, Adam its fruit, "thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread"?
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