Genesis 3:14

14. The Lord God said Now follows the threefold judgment, pronounced first upon the serpent, next upon the woman, (Genesis 3:16,) and finally upon man, (17-19 . ) The malediction against the serpent (Genesis 3:14-15) is itself threefold. The prime tempter is not asked, What is this thou hast done? for “the trial had now reached the fountain-head of sin, the purely evil purpose, the demoniacal, having no deeper ground, and requiring no further investigation.” Lange.

Cursed above all cattle Not that other cattle or beasts were in their measure cursed, any more than in Genesis 3:1 it is implied that they were subtile. Nor is the meaning cursed by all cattle, (as Gesenius, Lex., under מן ;) but, cursed from all; that is, thou only out of all . As the serpent was distinguished from all the beasts on account of his subtilty, (Genesis 3:1,) so is he doomed to a like distinction in this condemnation . “The ground was cursed for man’s sake,” says Keil, “but not the animal world for the serpent’s sake, nor even along with the serpent . ”

Upon thy belly shalt thou go Thou shalt ever be thought of as an abominable crawler. Comp. Leviticus 11:42. This has been supposed by many to imply that the shape and movements of the serpent were miraculously changed by this curse. Thus Delitzsch: “As its speaking was the first demoniacal miracle, so is this transformation the first divine.” Some have supposed that originally the serpent walked erect; others, that it had wings like a cherub, and could fly. All this, however, is in the realm of conjecture, and not necessarily implied in the words. The serpent may have crawled and eaten dust before as well as after the curse, but as all was then very good, no sense of shame, or curse, or humiliation, attached to these conditions. As the nakedness of the man and the woman excited no thoughts of shame or improper exposure, so the creeping things of the earth, and the serpent among them, had no unfavourable associations attached to their bestial shape or habits. But the serpent’s connexion with man’s sin caused him, as apart from all other beasts, to have his natural form and locomotion cursed into that which ever suggests disgust, meanness, and enmity.

Dust shalt thou eat For being a crawler on the ground and eating its food in the dirt, the serpent must needs devour much dust along with his food. Hence to “lick the dust like a serpent” is a proverbial expression. Micah 7:17. “And while all other creatures shall escape from the doom which has come upon them in consequence of the fall of man, (Isaiah 65:25,) the serpent, the instrument used in the temptation, shall, agreeably to the words in the sentence, all the days of thy life, remain condemned to a perpetual abasement, thus prefiguring the fate of the real tempter, for whom there is no share in the redemption . ” Hengstenberg .