Bible Strands
Genesis 3:14
So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh God addresses the serpent in Genesis 3:14 as the first post-fall judgment. This declaration precedes the decrees given to the woman in Genesis 3:16 and the ground in Genesis 3:17.
The words — הַנָּחָשׁ (ha.nachash) = the snake, and זֹאת (zo't) = this, anchor the pronouncement to the specific creature and its immediate transgression.
The thread — The dust motif resurfaces in Micah 7:17 and Isaiah 65:25, where the imagery marks humiliation and future restoration.
Why it lands — The text states the serpent's cursed status and physical degradation as a direct consequence of its action, requiring the reader to accept the declared judgment without alteration.
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
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:
Cross-references
- Micah 7:17 They will lick the dust like a snake, like reptiles slithering on the ground. They will come trembling from their strongholds in the presence of the LORD our God; they will tremble in fear of You.
- Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but the food of the serpent will be dust. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain,” says the LORD.
- Psalms 72:9 May the nomads bow before him, and his enemies lick the dust.
- Isaiah 29:4 You will be brought low, you will speak from the ground, and out of the dust your words will be muffled. Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground; your speech will whisper out of the dust.
- Genesis 9:6 Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.
- Leviticus 20:25 You are therefore to distinguish between clean and unclean animals and birds. Do not become contaminated by any animal or bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you.
- Deuteronomy 28:15 If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
- Exodus 21:28 If an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox must surely be stoned, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the ox shall not be held responsible.
- 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?’”