Genesis 3:14-15

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Unto the serpent. The guilt of the several accomplices in the first act of disobedience having been clearly established, and no just plea being put forward in arrest of punishment, the Righteous Judge proceeded to pass sentence on each of the criminals in succession;-and beginning with the serpent, who being the prime instigator of the rebellion, was to receive no dispensation of mercy, to enjoy no prospect of mitigation, He pronounces upon him the doom of deep and hopeless degradation.

The Lord God said, Cursed art thou above all cattle, [Hebrew, habªheemaah (H929), the singular of behemoth, a word which is used to designate the larger class of pachyderms and ruminants, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, etc.] A curse pronounced by the justice of God carries a meaning and a force with it of a far different and more tremendous kind than any uttered by the lips of man. For while the curses of man are only expressions of blind and impotent rage-words of empty sound, though of blasphemous character, that can do no harm but to the profane swearer who gives vent to them-a curse of God is a prophetic intimation of His anger, which will sooner or later appear in some unmistakable evidences of its infliction.

Thus, the curse pronounced upon the serpent was awful in its character as well as permanent in its effects; and as the agent in seducing the human pair to sin was not only a natural serpent, but chiefly and pre-eminently "that old serpent, the Devil," so in the curse which the Righteous Judge denounced against the serpent for the part he acted in that scene of temptation, they are considered as identical, the language used being in form applicable to the animal serpent, so as to be adapted to the reach of man's apprehension, but extending at the same time in its deeper significance to the spiritual serpent also. That the natural serpent, though only a humble and perhaps unconscious instrument of a superior agent, should be doomed to bear a part of the punishment of its crime was in accordance with the uniform procedure of God, who in the early ages of the world inflicted vengeance on all, even to the destruction of inferior animals (Exodus 22:28), and inanimate things (Exodus 23:24; Lev. 15:45), that were in any way connected with the commission of sin. In this view it was worthy of the wisdom and goodness of the Creater to denounce a curse upon the serpent, in order that this reptile race might ever afterward be associated with the memory of the first transgression; and there can be no doubt that the curse has been inflicted, by the deep, inextinguishable feelings, not of fear, but of horror, that mankind have cherished to the reptile tribe above every other class of animals.

The words "cursed above all cattle" do not imply that the serpent was to bear the heaviest weight of a curse which was to fall upon "all cattle, and upon every beast of the field;" because, though the whole inferior creation has suffered in common from the degradation of man its head (Romans 8:20), yet the serpent alone is the subject of this condemnatory sentence. It is specially cursed, because the original does not express a comparative degree-but 'amongst all cattle-apart from every beast of the field;' and though it may be difficult, with our imperfect knowledge of the reptile tribe, to say how the literal serpents, which apparently move in their proper sphere, and have a full enjoyment of existence, have been physically affected by the curse, there is no difficulty in its application to the spiritual serpent, who has become a greater object of divine abhorrence, as well as of human hatred, than any other being in the universe.

Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat. The ordinary view of the effect of the curse is, that by a sudden and signal miracle the appearance and the gait of the serpent tribe were changed from what these were at first; that from originally walking erect, and being a model of grace and elegance in form, it was doomed to creep in a prostrate attitude on the ground, and become a type of all that is odious, repulsive, and low, so that it is now branded with infamy. This old traditionary interpretation, however, the science of modern times has shown to be utterly inadmissible; because 'going upon the belly' is the gait natural to serpents, and not a penal degradation from an erect posture. 'Their progression,' says Dr. Pye Smith, 'is produced by the pushing of scales, shields, or rings against the ground, by muscular contractions and dilatations, by elastic springings, by vertical undulations, or by horizontal wrigglings; but the entire organization-skeleton, muscles, nerves, integuments-is adapted to the mode of progression belonging to the reptile tribe. That mode is sufficiently easy and rapid (often very rapid) for all the purposes of the animal's life, and the amplitude of its enjoyment. To imagine this mode of motion to be, in any sense, a change from a prior attitude and habit of the erect kind, or being furnished with wings, indicates a total ignorance of the anatomy of serpents.'

Moreover, so far from its being the case that serpents were, by a judicial act of the Creator, thrust out of their primitive and allotted place into an anomalous and less favourable condition, they, as ophidia, occupy their proper natural place in the graduated scale of animal life, and are closely united in an intermediate position with other species of the same great reptile family, by such a beautiful progression that their existence and special configuration are necessary to supply an important link in the harmonious chain of nature. Further, they are carnivorous, 'and their food,' as the writer above referred to remarks, 'according to the size and power of the species, is taken from the tribes of insects, worms, frogs, toads, and newts, birds, mice, and other small quadrupeds, until the scale ascends to the pythons and boas, which can master and swallow very large animals. They do not necessarily, from their wriggling motion, "eat the dust;" for they habitually obtain their food among herbage or in water; they seize their prey with the mouth, often elevate the head, and are no more exposed to the necessity of swallowing adherent earth than are carnivorous birds or quadrupeds.'

Lastly, it has been clearly ascertained by geological researches that serpents exactly similar in form and habits to the existing species lived on the pre-Adamite earth. 'It is,' says Professor Owen, 'a palaeontological fact, that the ophidian peculiarities and complexities of organization, in designed subserviency to a prone posture and a gliding progress on the belly were given, together with the poison apparatus, by the Creator, when, in the progressive preparation of the dry land, but few, and those only the lower organized species, now our contemporaries, had been called into existence-before any of the actual kinds of mammalia trod the earth, and long ages before the creation of man' (Exeter Hall Lectures; also, 'Transactions of the Geological Society of London'). The language of the inspired historian, therefore, must be interpreted figuratively, and with reference to that malignant being of whom the animal serpent was the humble instrument. Just as going on the belly indicates lowness of rank in the scale of animal existence, and to bite or lick the dust is a common metaphor for the conquest and ignominious humility of a proud, presumptuous foe, so both these phrases are to be understood as intimating that Satan, from being originally "an angel of light," belonging to a high order of intellectual beings, and formed for pure and exalted objects, would become a wretched creature, groveling in the dust of the basest pursuits, and doomed to a condition of perpetual meanness and ignominy.

I will put enmity between thee and the woman. If there could be any doubt that the language addressed to the serpent involved a two-fold meaning-a reference to the spiritual as identified with the natural serpent-it must be removed by these words, which bear a far deeper significance than at first sight they seem to contain. But true as it is that such a feeling of hatred and horror at the serpent tribe has ever since existed in the human breast, the announcement of this irreconcilable enmity-nay, even of the eventual destruction of those loathsome reptiles-would have tended but little to assuage the tumultuous waves of anxiety, terror, and despair that were so wildly agitating the hearts of the fallen pair. How strangely unsuitable the trivial character of such intelligence would have been to the awful solemnity of an occasion when they were standing overwhelmed with a consciousness of guilt in the presence of their God!

The declaration carried a far deeper import; and although the memory and simple impressions of our first parents might be preoccupied exclusively with the idea of the visible serpent yet every intelligent reader now perceives that, though the language used did necessarily bear a figurative reference to the reptile's form and habits, the denunciation was really directed against the unseen agent, whose wicked and malignant character rendered him a deadlier foe to mankind. The animal might have been still sporting among the trees, and in full view of the parties; but the circumstance of the Divine Being addressing it personally, as well as the mysterious import of the curse pronounced, affords indisputable evidence that not the irrational creature, but Satan, was the serpent on whom the full weight of the condemnation fell. "I will put enmity between thee and the woman." God is often represented as doing that which He permits to be done; and therefore, since it is contrary to His holy and benevolent character to produce disorder or sow the seeds of dissension among any orders of His creatures, the statement here made must be regarded as a prophetic intimation of the moral state of this world, as a theater of conflict between man and the powers of evil. There is a covert allusion to the temporary alliance between the serpent and the woman, because now that she had found in her dire experience that he had ensnared her to her ruin, she would henceforth recoil from him as an insidious and deadly enemy.

And between thy seed and her seed, х zera` (H2233)] - the act of sowing, as well as seed, though used in reference to an individual (Genesis 4:25; Genesis 21:13), commonly denotes plurality, and is equivalent to children, progeny, posterity (Genesis 13:16; Genesis 15:5; Genesis 15:13; Genesis 17:7; Genesis 17:10; Psalms 22:23; cf. 2 Kings 11:1). Accordingly, Kurtz-though recognizing the prophetic character of this passage-views the phrase "seed of the woman" as equivalent to all the human race; and the modern Jews also take it as meaning collectively the children whom she shall bring forth-the whole family of man. But "the seed of the women" being contrasted with "the seed of the serpent," a designation, in this context, and conformably to Scripture usage elsewhere, of the wicked portion of mankind (cf. John 8:44; John 13:38, with Matthew 23:33; 1 John 3:8), the expression must evidently be considered as restricted to the children of God, "who are born not of the flesh but of the spirit" (cf. Galatians 3:29); and from its denoting individuality in the following clause, as specially applied to one whose miraculous birth gave him a pre-eminent title to be called "the seed of the woman" (cf. Galatians 4:4). The prophecy points to a continual struggle which would be carried on between the offspring of the woman and the grand enemy of God and man: and no language could more appropriately describe the mighty conflict, of which this world, has ever since been the theatre, between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. To us the words have a higher significance than they could have had to our first parents. Who does not now accept them as an epitomized history of the holy war which, from the moment of the fall, has been waged between the children of light and of darkness, between those who adhere to the cause of God and righteousness, and those who are ranged on the side of the Devil by their love and practice of sin?

It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. - х huw' (H1931) is a personal pronoun in the masculine gender, agreeing with yªshuwpkaa (H7779) ro'sh (H7218), shall watch or lie in wait, so as to attack; to fall upon suddenly (cf. Job 9:17; Psalms 139:2; cf. Romans 16:20), and the clause is thus rendered by Gesenius, 'He shall seek to crush thy head, and thou shalt seek to bite his heel']. The leading idea is founded on the habit of the insidious serpent to bite its victim in the heel or behind, and that of mankind striking or dashing at a serpent's head with a club. The same verb is used to describe the attack upon the head and the heel, to show that destruction is aimed at in both. But though the bite of a serpent on the heel of a man, when the poison infects the blood, is dangerous, it is not incurable. The crushing of the serpent's head, however, is destruction.

With the exception of Papists, who, contrary alike to sense and grammar, render the words 'she shall bruise,' this clause is considered universally as referring to a Redeemer, who, in human nature, and a son of woman born, should, after partial suffering from a wicked malignant power, obtain a complete victory, and deprive it of all further means or opportunity of doing evil. The seed of the woman who was to bruise the serpent's head is connected with a singular verb and pronoun, and, denoting therefore an individual, points to Christ personally in a special and emphatic sense. In Him the prophecy attained its highest fulfillment: He is the representative of the whole race, as well as the source of all the life and energy by which the Church bruises the serpent's head; and by His death on the cross, when His "heel" - i:e., His humanity-was laid low, He successfully encountered Satan in a manner that excludes all idea of any participator either in His sufferings or His triumphs. But although the prophecy does unquestionably refer to Christ's personal conflict with Satan, and His victory over him as its culminating point, yet the Church-which is the spiritual body of which He is the Head-must also, in its ideal unity, be viewed as embraced in this prophetic intimation, which finds its accomplishment in all the conflicts of God's people with the powers of darkness-whether the conflicts of the Church universal, of particular branches of it, or of private believers, issuing in their final triumph at that day when, 'Satan being completely and forever bruised under their feet,' He who was 'made of a woman' shall appear in His glory, and reign, in a better than the earthly paradise regained, over the myriads of His ransomed people.

This prophecy, uttered directly by the lips of the Creator Himself, would be received with very different feelings by the parties in whose hearing it was pronounced. To Satan it must have been a bitter disappointment, since it put a sudden termination to the fiendish glee with which he was doubtless exulting over the success of his recent plot, and held out an awful prospect, not only of greater degradation punishment to himself, but of a death-blow to his empire of darkness. He probably could not penetrate the deep mystery of the prediction; but he must have understood enough of it to perceive that it portended some fatal catastrophe to himself; and that, in the course of time, the mischief he had done would be made subservient to his own eternal infamy, and to the most glorious display of the divine character. But to the fallen pair, is the design of this prophecy is more obvious, so the effects of it are more easily traced. It was calculated in no ordinary degree to relieve and support their deeply agitated and desponding minds. It announced, in terms very figurative and enigmatical indeed, but still intelligible, that their Creator, though grievously offended by their disobedience, cherished purposes of mercy toward them. It gave them a strong and certain assurance that the sin which had unhappily entered into the world through their means, and the evils that flowed from it, would not continue forever. But beyond the fact of this assurance, no determinate information was given. The language was vague, indefinite, and obscure-no particulars being subjoined respecting either the mode in which the deliverance was to come, the time when it would be granted, or the agency by which it would be achieved, whether a collective body or an individual of the race.

Still the drift of the sentence pronounced upon the serpent in the hearing of the fallen pair was exceedingly seasonable to them, and well calculated to afford them present comfort as well as future hope. The significant expression, 'bruising the serpent's head,' implied that his malignant designs against them would be frustrated by the destruction of his power. For, first, as he thought, by seducing the first pair, to have brought on their death, and so have made an end of the whole species, God promises that the woman should live to have seed.

Secondly, since he seduced the woman under the specious pretense of friendship, while he intended her ruin, a war is now declared against the Devil and his party, which should end in the overthrow of them and their devices. And, thirdly, since the Devil thought, by drawing them into sin, and under the wrath of God, to bring them into misery, and deprive them of the happiness that they were made for, God declares the Devil's policy should be defeated by the seed of the woman, in which is implied a positive promise that mankind, though by the envy and malice of Satan become sinful, should receive through the seed of the woman the forgiveness of sins and a restoration to their forfeited possession, with all the peace and felicity resulting from the favour of God (Burnet's 'Boyle Lectures'). Sentence upon the man and the woman was deferred until after they had been assured of victory over their enemy, when they were both informed of circumstances of deterioration that were to take place in their respective conditions.