Genesis 3:1

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The serpent addresses the woman directly, after God's command in Genesis 2:16–17 and before the act of eating. He is the speaker; she is the audience; no other party is present.

The words — עָרוּם ('arūm, H6175) is rendered "crafty" or "shrewd"; it appears eleven times in the Hebrew Bible — here, twice in Job (5:12; 15:5), and eight times in Proverbs contrasting the shrewd with fools (12:16, 23; 13:16; 14:8, 15, 18; 22:3; 27:12), never in 3:5, 3:7, 38:26 or 49:5, which use a different, similarly spelled word for "naked" — and here singles out the serpent as uniquely so among all field animals God made.

The thread — 2 Corinthians 11:3 explicitly names "the serpent's cunning" as the mechanism by which Eve was deceived, and 11:14 identifies the deceiver as Satan masquerading as an angel of light; Revelation 12:9 retroactively labels the same figure "that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world."

Why it lands — The serpent does not deny God's command; he inflates it from a single forbidden tree to "any tree," inviting the reader to test whether the version of a rule they hold matches the original.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Cross-references

2 Corinthians 11:3 I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Revelation 20:2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
Matthew 4:3 The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Genesis 3:13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.”
Matthew 10:16 Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
Matthew 4:6 “If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”
Isaiah 27:1 In that day the LORD will take His sharp, great, and mighty sword, and bring judgment on Leviathan the fleeing serpent—Leviathan the coiling serpent—and He will slay the dragon of the sea.
Matthew 4:9 “All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will fall down and worship me.”