In Genesis 3:14-19, God describes the conditions that must follow the sin in the garden. He curses the last creature mentioned, the snake. Then He speaks to the woman, then to the man.
The snake is subjected to a special curse. We learn elsewhere that the snake represents Satan, the spirit-being who is God’s archenemy (Revelation 12:9; 20:2; 2 Corinthians 11:3). God foresees hostility between the woman and the snake, with the woman winning through her offspring that crushes the snake’s head. As history unfolds, we find that Jesus brings about the final defeat of Satan (John 12:31; 16:11; Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8; Revelation 20:2, 10 cf. Romans 16:20).
The woman, having been assured of victory through her offspring, now learns that childbirth with be painful. After that, Genesis 3:16 has two parts: “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
The man also will experience “pain”—in the sense of hard and painful labor— in working the cursed ground (Genesis 3:17). Eventually the same ground will receive his body. “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). The reason for these penalties? “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the [forbidden] tree” (Genesis 3:17).