Genesis 3 - Notes on the Curses - The Serpent
I wanted to take some time and make some notes on Genesis 3:14-19 and the various curses that are described. The first thing that is noticable is that this section moves into a poetic format. Additionally, there appears to be various parallels going on across some of the verses.
It’s also interesting that the order that God addresses the characters is in the opposite order that they are seen just a few verses above. In verses 9-13, God called to the man, the man blamed the woman, then the woman blamed the serpent. In verses 14-19 we see God address them in reverse: serpent, woman, then man.
Parallel and mirroring. Intentional literary structure. It appears to be chiasmic in structure with the middle of which is the curse of the serpent and the proclamation made in v15 (see notes on why v15 is important below). A little more about the chiasmic structure of this section can be found here.
But, let’s walk through these verses section-by-section. I’ll do one post per character/curse. The first character addressed is the serpent:
14. So the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you above all the livestock
and the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15. And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
A few interesting things going on here…first, it’s interesting that it is explicitly stated that the serpent will “crawl on your belly?” What is God doing here? Did the serpent not crawl on its belly to begin with but now does? This question has been a matter of discussion for centuries but the interpretation I tend to align with is that the imagry puts the serpent (Satan) as low and as close to the earth as it can (e.g. the lowest position possible).
And then there is the phrase “you will eat dust all the days of your life." Thinking about this a little bit, the imagry is one of a snake, on its belly, licking. And it is implied that through this constant licking action, it will continually “eat dust.”
The licking dust imagry is one that you can see in other parts of scripture. Psalm 72:9 states: “The desert tribes will bow before him and his enemies will lick the dust." Simlarly, Micha 7:12 says: “They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground." Both verses give us the idea of submission, defeat, lowliness, and ultimate humility. So the phrase here in Genesis is a statement on how the serpent (Satan) was degraded and defeated to the lowest possible position.
Something to meditate on is the fact that dust is also what man (Adam) was created from. Lots of dust going on here…is there a connection?
Verse 15 is known as the “Protoevangelium” or “the first gospel.” It’s seen as the first instance in which we are given a glimpse of the promise that the serpent (Satan) will be defeated once and for all. “Crush your head” means it’s a death-blow. And notice that this defeat will come at the hands of some future seed of the woman (afterall, Adam and Eve do not have kids at this point in the story). Notice that the seed of the woman will also be wounded (“you will strike his heel”), but the wound will not be final.
More about the protoevangelium idea here.
These notes are unpolished on purpose. You can read more about why, here.