Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 3:16

16. Unto the Woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow , and thy conception: In sorrow thou shalt bring forth Children : And thy desire shall be to thy Husband, and he shall rule over thee .

Or, certainly, as the repetition of the same word implyes.

In diverse pains and infirmities peculiar to thy Sex. (i. e.) Thou shalt have many, and those oft-times false and fruitless Conceptions and Abortive Births, and whereas thou mightest commonly have had many Children at one Conception, as some few Women yet have, now thou shalt ordinarily undergo all the troubles and pains of Conception, Breeding and Birth for every Child which thou hast. Or, Thy sorrows and thy Conception, by a figure called Hendiaduo, are put for, thy sorrows in Conception, or rather in Child-bearing, which the Hebrew word here used signifies, Gen. 16. 4. Iud. 13. 3.

Aristotle in his Histor. Animal. 7. 9. observes that Women bring forth young with more pain than any other Creatures.

Or, bear, for the word notes all the pains and troubles which Women have both in the time of Child-bearing, and in the act of bringing forth.

Heb. Sons: and Daughters too, both being comprehended in that word, as Exod, 22. 24. Psal. 128. 6.

Thy desires shall be referred or submitted to thy husbands will and pleasure to grant or deny them, as he sees fit. Which sense is confirmed from Gen. 4. 7. where the same phrase is used in the same sense. And this punishment was both very proper for her that committed so great an errour as the eating of the forbidden Fruit was, in compliance with her own desire without asking her Husbands advise or consent, as in all reason she should have done in so weighty and doubtful a matter: And very grievous to her, because Womens Affections use to be vehement, and it is irksome to them to have them restrained or denied.

Seeing for want of thy Husbands rule and conduct thou wast seduced by the Serpent, and didst abuse that power I gave thee together with thy Husband to draw him to sin, thou shalt now be brought down to a lower degree, for he shall rule thee, not with that sweet and gentle hand, which he formerly used, as a guide, and Counsellour onely, but by an higher and harder hand, as a Lord and Governour, to whom I have now given a greater Power and Authority over thee, than he had before, (which through thy pride and corruption will be far more uneasie to thee, than his former Empire was) and who will usurp a further power than I have given him, and will by my permission for thy punishment rule thee many times with Rigour, Tyranny, and Cruelty, which thou wilt groan under, but shalt not be able to deliver thy self from it. See 1 Cor. 14. 34. 1 Tim. 2. 11, 12. 1 Pet. 3. 6.

Marginal references: Or, subject to thy Husband.; 1 Cor. 14. 34.