Itstsabon עִצָּבוֹן
One word for two vocations
Read the sentence closely. Genesis never says “cursed art thou” to the man or the woman. It says “cursed is the ground for thy sake.” The serpent is cursed. The ground is cursed. The man and woman receive something else: itstsabon — hard, grinding toil, laid over their two callings, bearing life and working the ground.
One word over both of them. Her sorrow and his sorrow are the same Hebrew word — not two separate punishments, but one broken condition, shared.
A farmer at dusk, leaning on the plow, the field half-broken, thorns along the wall. The work still works — it just fights back now.
The third use, and the hope inside it
Itstsabon appears exactly three times in Scripture, and all three are in Genesis. The third time, it turns toward hope.
Lamech names his son “Comfort,” aimed straight at this word. Even on the Bible’s first page, someone is already hoping God means to lift the sorrow.
The sorrow finally lifted
The voice that promised rest to the heavy-laden is the same voice at the end of the book: no more sorrow. The word Lamech aimed his hope at finally lands.
Itstsabon glows heavy and low in the dusk sky — the sorrow the whole book is working to lift.
Open this scene’s sky →Three occurrences is a small set, and we say so — small sets make sharp observations, not sweeping doctrines. The King James word “sorrow” flattens this word a little; it names grinding toil more than sadness, and readers should know that. And Revelation 21:4’s “sorrow” is a Greek word, not this Hebrew one — the connection is the promise’s shape, not a dictionary link.