Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 3:14-15

"And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou 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: and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." — Genesis 3:14-15 (ASV)

Unto the serpent. —As the serpent had tempted our first parents purposely and consciously in order to lead them into sin, he stood there without excuse and received a threefold penalty. The outward form of the condemnation is made suitable to the shape which the tempter had assumed; but the true force and meaning, especially in the last and most intense portion of the sentence, belong not to the animal but to Satan himself. The serpent is but the type: diabolic agency the reality. First, therefore, the serpent is condemned to crawl.

As he is pronounced to be “cursed above all cattle” (or rather, among them)—that is, the tame animals subjected to man’s service—and also “among all beasts of the field”—that is, the wild animals, but a term not applicable to reptiles—it has been supposed that the serpent was originally erect and beautiful, and that Adam had even tamed serpents and had them in his household. But such a transformation belongs to the region of fable, and the meaning is that henceforth the serpent’s crawling motion is to be a mark of disgrace for it, and for Satan a sign of meanness and contempt.

He won the victory over our guileless first parents, and still he winds in and out among men, ever bringing degradation with him, and ever sinking with his victims into deeper abysses of shame and infamy. Yet, even so, he perpetually suffers defeat and, secondly, has to “lick the dust”, because his mean devices lead, as in this case, only to the manifestation of God’s glory. In Paradise Lost, Milton has made Satan a hero, though fallen; really, he is a despicable and mean-spirited foe, whose strength lies in man’s moral feebleness.

Finally, there is perpetual enmity between the serpent and man. The adder in the path bites man’s heel and is crushed beneath his footstep. It has been noticed that in spite of the beauty and gracefulness of many of the species, man’s loathing of them is innate, while in hot countries they are his great enemy; for instance, deaths in India from snakebites are many times more numerous than those caused by carnivores.

Her seed ... shall bruise thy head. —Here we have the sum of the whole matter, and the rest of the Bible only explains the nature of this struggle, the persons who wage it, and the manner and consequences of the victory. Here, too, we learn the end and purpose for which the narrative is cast in its present form. It pictures to us man in a close and loving relation, not to an abstract deity, but to a personal and covenant Jehovah. This Being with tender care plants a garden for him, gathers into it whatever is most rare and beautiful in vegetation, and, having given it to him for his home, even deigns in the evening to walk with him there.

In the care of this garden, He provides for Adam pleasant employment and watches the development of his intellect with such interest as a father feels in the mental growth of his child. Day by day, He brings new animals within his view; and when, after studying their habits, he gives them names, the Deity shares man’s tranquil enjoyment. And when he still feels a void and needs a companion who can hold rational discourse with him, Jehovah elaborately fashions for him, out of his own self, a second being, whose presence satisfies all his longings.

Meanwhile, in accordance with the universal law that responsibility goes hand in hand with free will, an easy and simple trial is provided for man’s obedience. He fails, and henceforth he must wage a sterner conflict and attain victory only by effort and suffering. In this struggle, man is finally to prevail, but not unscathed. And his triumph is to be gained not by mere human strength, but by the coming of One who is “the Woman’s Seed”; and around this promised Deliverer the rest of Scripture groups itself.

Leave out these words, and all the inspired teaching which follows would be an ever-widening river without a fountainhead. But necessarily, with the fall came the promise of restoration. Grace is no afterthought but enters the world side by side with sin. Upon this foundation, the rest of Holy Scripture is built, until revelation at last reaches its cornerstone in Christ. The outward form of the narrative affords endless subjects for curious discussion; its inner meaning and true object are to lay the broad basis of all future revealed truth.

Regarding the reading of the Vulgate and some of the Fathers, ipsa conteret, “she shall bruise,” not only is the pronoun masculine in the Hebrew, but also the verb. This is also the case in Syriac, in which language verbs also have genders. Most probably, a critical edition of the Vulgate would restore even there ipse conteret, “he shall bruise.”

Like a large proportion of the words used in Genesis, the verb is rare, being found only twice elsewhere in Scripture. In Job 9:17, the meaning seems plainly to be to break, but in Psalms 139:11, where, however, the reading is uncertain, the sense required is to cover or veil, though Dr. Kay translates overwhelm. Some versions in this place translate it observe; and the Vulgate gives two renderings, namely, “She shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt lie in ambush for (his or her) heel” (gender not marked— calcaneo ejus). The translation of the Authorized Version can be relied upon as correct, despite its not being entirely applicable to the attack of a natural serpent upon a wayfarer’s heel.