The Fallible Study Bible

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Genesis3:14–15

The Fate of the Serpent

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Genesis 3:14–15 — The Fate of the Serpent. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

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 · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hîm way·yō·mer ’el- han·nā·ḥāš kî ‘ā·śî·ṯā zōṯ ’ā·rūr ’at·tāh mik·kāl hab·bə·hê·māh ū·mik·kōl ḥay·yaṯ haś·śā·ḏeh ‘al- gə·ḥō·nə·ḵā ṯê·lêḵ wə·‘ā·p̄ār tō·ḵal kāl- yə·mê ḥay·ye·ḵā

Word by word23 · parsed
יְהֹוָ֨הYah·wehSo the LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
יְהֹוָה — the covenant name, YHWH; paired here with ’Elōhîm. The Judge who sentences is the same LORD who walked in the garden (3:8). The serpent is addressed by the personal God it slandered.
אֱלֹהִ֥ים׀’ĕ·lō·hîmGodH430
√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseNounmasculine plural
וַיֹּאמֶר֩way·yō·mersaidH559
√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
וַיֹּאמֶר, “and he said” (root ’āmar). Note what does not happen: God interrogated the man (3:9) and the woman (3:13), but the serpent He does not question — He passes straight to sentence. The Geneva note catches it: God asks the reason of Adam and Eve “because he would bring them to repentance,” but “he does not ask the serpent, because he would show him no mercy.”
אֶֽל־’el-toH413
√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition
הַנָּחָשׁ֮han·nā·ḥāšthe serpentH5175
√ nâchâsh — a snake (from its hiss)ArticleNounmasculine singular
הַנָּחָשׁ (hannāḥāš, “the serpent”). The same creature called “more crafty than any beast of the field” in 3:1 is now cursed “from among every beast of the field” — the cunning that exalted it becomes the measure of its fall.
כִּ֣יkîBecauseH3588
√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction
כִּי — “because.” The sentence is grounded in a deed, not a whim: because you have done this. Even the curse is just.
עָשִׂ֣יתָ‘ā·śî·ṯāyou have doneH6213
√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalPerfectsecond person masculine singular
זֹּאת֒zōṯthisH2063
√ zôʼth — this (often used adverb)Pronounfeminine singular
אָר֤וּר’ā·rūrcursedH779
√ ʼârar — to execrateVerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine singular
אָרוּר (’ā·rūr), “cursed.” Cambridge observes that “the word ‘cursed’ is only used in addressing the serpent… and in reference to ‘the ground’ (3:17). Jehovah does not pronounce a curse either upon the man or upon the woman.” The curse falls on the tempter and on the soil — never directly on the image-bearers.
אַתָּה֙’at·tāhare youH859
√ ʼattâh — thou and thee, or (plural) ye and youPronounsecond person masculine singular
מִכָּל־mik·kālabove allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholePreposition-mNounmasculine singular construct
הַבְּהֵמָ֔הhab·bə·hê·māhlivestockH929
√ bᵉhêmâh — properly, a dumb beastArticleNounfeminine singular
הַבְּהֵמָה (bəhēmāh), domestic “cattle”; paired below with ḥayyaṯ haśśāḏeh, the wild “beast of the field.” The two terms together sweep in the whole animal kingdom: the serpent is set apart from all of it.
וּמִכֹּ֖לū·mik·kōland everyH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeConjunctive waw, Preposition-mNounmasculine singular construct
חַיַּ֣תḥay·yaṯbeastH2416
√ chay — aliveNounfeminine singular construct
הַשָּׂדֶ֑הhaś·śā·ḏehof the fieldH7704
√ sâdeh — a field (as flat)ArticleNounmasculine singular
עַל־‘al-OnH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
גְּחֹנְךָ֣gə·ḥō·nə·ḵāyour bellyH1512
√ gâchôwn — the external abdomen, belly (as the source of the faetus )Nounmasculine singular constructsecond person masculine singular
גָּחוֹן (gāḥôn), the dragging under-belly. Its only other occurrence (Leviticus 11:42) is the legal definition of the unclean creeping thing — “whatever goes on its belly.” The serpent's posture becomes the canonical icon of defilement: to go on the gāḥôn is to be ritually abhorrent.
תֵלֵ֔ךְṯê·lêḵ{will} you goH1980
√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbQalImperfectsecond person masculine singular
וְעָפָ֥רwə·‘ā·p̄ārand dustH6083
√ ʻâphâr — dust (as powdered or gray)Conjunctive wawNounmasculine singular
עָפָר (‘āphār), “dust.” Keil & Delitzsch are careful: this “is not to be understood as meaning that dust was to be its only food, but that while crawling in the dust it would also swallow dust.” The eating of dust is the language of total defeat (cf. Psalm 72:9; Isaiah 49:23).
תֹּאכַ֖לtō·ḵalyou {will} eatH398
√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbQalImperfectsecond person masculine singular
כָּל־kāl-allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct
יְמֵ֥יyə·mêthe daysH3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Nounmasculine plural construct
חַיֶּֽיךָ׃ḥay·ye·ḵāof your lifeH2416
√ chay — aliveNounmasculine plural constructsecond person masculine singular
חַיֶּיךָ (ḥayyeḵā), “your life.” Cambridge insists the phrase “all the days of thy life” shows the sentence falls on “not the individual serpent, but the whole serpent-race” — and, the older expositors add, on the tempter behind it, “for whom there is no deliverance.”
15

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

bê·nə·ḵā ’ā·šîṯ wə·’ê·ḇāh ū·ḇên hā·’iš·šāh ū·ḇên zar·‘ă·ḵā ū·ḇên zar·‘āh hū yə·šū·p̄ə·ḵā rōš wə·’at·tāh tə·šū·p̄en·nū ‘ā·qêḇ

Word by word15 · parsed
בֵּֽינְךָ֙bê·nə·ḵāAndH996
√ bêyn — between (repeated before each noun, often with other particles)Prepositionsecond person masculine singular
אָשִׁ֗ית’ā·šîṯI will putH7896
√ shîyth — to place (in a very wide application)VerbQalImperfectfirst person common singular
אָשִׁית (’āšîṯ, “I will put/place”), first person — God Himself establishes the hostility. The enmity between the woman's line and the serpent is not an accident of nature but a divine ordinance. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown: God does this “by leaving ‘the serpent and his seed to the influence of their own corruption.’”
וְאֵיבָ֣ה׀wə·’ê·ḇāhenmityH342
√ ʼêybâh — hostilityConjunctive wawNounfeminine singular
אֵיבָה (’êybāh), “enmity.” The keystone word of the verse, and a rare one. Its four other occurrences (Numbers 35:21–22; Ezekiel 25:15; 35:5) all denote a deadly blood-feud — premeditated, generational killing. The same charged term sets the spiritual war on a war footing from the first page.
וּבֵ֣יןū·ḇênbetween [you]H996
√ bêyn — between (repeated before each noun, often with other particles)Conjunctive wawPreposition
הָֽאִשָּׁ֔הhā·’iš·šāhand the womanH802
√ ʼishshâh — a womanArticleNounfeminine singular
הָאִשָּׁה (hā’iššāh), “the woman.” Poole notes the man is included but “the woman alone is mentioned, for the devil's greater confusion” — the one the tempter seduced becomes the occasion of his overthrow.
וּבֵ֥יןū·ḇênand betweenH996
√ bêyn — between (repeated before each noun, often with other particles)Conjunctive wawPreposition
זַרְעֲךָ֖zar·‘ă·ḵāyour seedH2233
√ zeraʻ — seedNounmasculine singular constructsecond person masculine singular
זַרְעֲךָ (zar‘ăḵā), “your seed.” The serpent's seed: those, in Barnes's words, who remain “his moral offspring, and follow the first transgression without repentance.” The line of the serpent is moral, not biological — a kinship of rebellion.
וּבֵ֣יןū·ḇên. . .H996
√ bêyn — between (repeated before each noun, often with other particles)Conjunctive wawPreposition
זַרְעָ֑הּzar·‘āhand her seedH2233
√ zeraʻ — seedNounmasculine singular constructthird person feminine singular
זַרְעָהּ (zar‘āh), “her seed.” Notably her seed, not the man's — the woman's offspring. The expositors hear in this the seed “made of a woman… without the help of man” (Poole, citing Galatians 4:4; Isaiah 7:14). The grammar that singles out the woman's line is unusual in a patrilineal text.
ה֚וּאhūHeH1931
√ hûwʼ — he (she or it)Pronounthird person masculine singular
הוּא (hû), the emphatic “He.” The pronoun pivots the whole oracle from race to person: not the seed-collective but a single He who crushes the head. This is the seam where the Protevangelium narrows from humanity toward an individual victor — the reading the church has heard as messianic.
יְשׁוּפְךָ֣yə·šū·p̄ə·ḵā{will} crushH7779
√ shûwph — properly, to gape, iVerbQalImperfectthird person masculine singularsecond person masculine singular
יְשׁוּפְךָ (yəšûp̄əḵā), “He shall crush you.” The rare verb shûp̄. Keil & Delitzsch defend the sense terere, conterere (“to bruise, crush”) “in harmony with the word συντρίβειν in Romans 16:20,” where Paul writes that God will soon crush Satan under the saints' feet — the New Testament's own echo of this clause.
רֹ֔אשׁrōšyour headH7218
√ rôʼsh — the head (as most easily shaken), whether literal or figurative (in many applications, of place, time, rank, itcNounmasculine singular
רֹאשׁ (rō’š), “head.” The mortal target. Poole: the head is “the principal seat of the serpent's life, which therefore men chiefly strike at.” A bruised head is a fatal wound; a bruised heel is not.
וְאַתָּ֖הwə·’at·tāhand youH859
√ ʼattâh — thou and thee, or (plural) ye and youConjunctive wawPronounsecond person masculine singular
תְּשׁוּפֶ֥נּוּtə·šū·p̄en·nū{will} strikeH7779
√ shûwph — properly, to gape, iVerbQalImperfectsecond person masculine singularthird person masculine singular
תְּשׁוּפֶנּוּ (təšûp̄ennû), “you shall crush him.” The same verb as the serpent's blow — but aimed at the heel. K&D: “the same word is used in connection with both head and heel, to show that on both sides the intention is to destroy the opponent,” yet head and heel denote a majus and minus: a deadly wound answered by a survivable one.
עָקֵֽב׃ס‘ā·qêḇhis heelH6119
√ ʻâqêb — a heel (as protuberant)Nounmasculine singular
עָקֵב (‘āqēḇ), “heel.” The lowest, most reachable part of the upright man — the only thing a crawling serpent can reach. The same word names Jacob, the “heel-grabber” (Genesis 25:26), and appears in Genesis 49:17 of the serpent biting the horse's heels. The heel-wound is real and painful, but “not deadly… if they be observed in time” (Benson).

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The Judge who does not ask — verse 14

The trial moves in descending order of mercy. To the man God put a question (3:9); to the woman, a question (3:13); to the serpent, no question at all — only sentence. The Geneva Study Bible reads the silence exactly: God “asked the reason from Adam and his wife, because he would bring them to repentance, but he does not ask the serpent, because he would show him no mercy.” The grammar carries the theology. The verb is simply way·yō·mer — “and he said” — and what He says begins with a ground, kî ‘āśîṯā zōṯ, “because you have done this.” Even the harshest verdict in the chapter is a just one.

The first stroke of the curse is a posture. ‘Al-gəḥōnəḵā ṯēlēḵ — “upon your belly you shall go.” The word gāḥôn is so rare it surfaces only once more in all of Scripture, in Leviticus 11:42, where it defines the unclean creeping thing — “whatever goes on its belly.” Keil & Delitzsch tie the two passages together: going on the belly “(equals creeping, Leviticus 11:42) was a mark of the deepest degradation.” The serpent's gait becomes the Bible's icon of defilement. And whether the curse fell on the snake alone, the devil alone, or both, the expositors are nearly unanimous that it reaches past the animal. Ellicott states it cleanly: “the serpent is but the type: diabolic agency the reality.”

ii. “From among,” not “above” — verse 14

One small preposition decides how much of creation the curse touches. The BSB's “cursed are you above all livestock” would imply a curse lying on all animals and a heavier one on the serpent. But the Hebrew is min — “from among.” The Cambridge Bible defends the point philologically: “Better, as R.V. marg., from among… the serpent alone receives the curse. So LXX ἀπό, Vulg. ‘inter.’” Keil & Delitzsch agree it is “literally out of the beasts, separate from them,” and draw the dogmatic consequence: the creation's “bondage to corruption” (Romans 8:20–21) flows not from this curse spreading to the animals but “as the consequence of death passing from man into the rest of the creation.” The serpent is singled out; the rest of the animal world suffers, but for man's sake, not the serpent's.

iii. The first gospel — and the honest limit of it — verse 15

Verse 15 is the hinge of the whole Bible, and the voices divide over how far it reaches. The older expositors read it straight to Christ. Benson: “her seed — that is, her offspring, first and principally CHRIST… whose alone work it is to bruise the serpent's head.” Barnes marvels that “this simple phrase… describes exactly and literally Him who was made of woman without the intervention of man, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” The Cambridge Bible, more cautious, calls the verse “the Protevangelium” — the first-gospel — but warns: “There is no prediction of a personal victor… We are not justified in going to the full length of this interpretation.” The honest reader should hold both. Two grammatical facts, however, do press toward a person and against the cautious minimum. First, the verb shûp̄ (“crush”) is the same word for both blows, yet the second clause shifts from seed to the serpent itself — Keil & Delitzsch: “it is not over the seed of the serpent but over the serpent itself that the victory is said to be gained… This foe is Satan.” Second, the pronoun is the singular masculine hû, “He shall crush” — which is why Barnes and Cambridge alike correct the Vulgate's ipsa (“she”) as a transcriber's slip: “the pronoun is masculine in the Hebrew… and also the verb.”

The asymmetry of the wounds is the gospel in miniature. One verb, two outcomes. K&D: “head and heel denote a majus and minus” — a crushed head is mortal; a struck heel is grievous but survivable. The serpent reaches only the heel of the upright man; the man crushes the serpent's head. And the New Testament hears the very verb again: K&D retain the sense “bruise, crush” precisely “in harmony with the word συντρίβειν in Romans 16:20” — “the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

Read under the rule that Scripture alone is the final authority, three things in this short oracle ask to be weighed — offered as a reading to be tested, not a verdict to be trusted. First, the curse is exact and never sloppy. God does not curse the man or the woman (Cambridge: “‘cursed’ is only used in addressing the serpent… and in reference to ‘the ground’”); He curses the tempter and the soil, and grounds even that in a deed — “because you have done this.” Judgment here is measured, not arbitrary. Second, grace arrives inside the sentence. The first promise of a deliverer is not spoken after the curse as a softening afterthought; it is embedded in the curse pronounced on the enemy. The same breath that condemns the serpent announces the One who will crush its head. Third, the text itself reaches further than its first hearers could see. The rare verb shûp̄, the singular He, the seed reckoned through the woman, the victory said to fall on the serpent itself and not merely its offspring — these are real features of the Hebrew, not pious overlays. The cautious reading (Cambridge) is right that the verse, taken alone, does not name a Messiah; the traditional reading (Benson, Barnes, Poole) is right that the grammar leans toward a person. Sola Scriptura does not force a choice between them — it holds the conflict the verse plainly founds and watches the rest of the canon resolve it.

The first promise of the Savior is spoken not to comfort the guilty but to sentence the serpent — grace smuggled into a curse.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

On the belly → the unclean creeping thing verbal / quotation — confirmed

The serpent's sentence — “upon your belly you shall go” — uses gāḥôn, a word that appears only twice in all of Scripture. Its single other occurrence is the law of clean and unclean in Leviticus 11:42, which defines the abhorrent creeping thing as “whatever goes on its belly.” The curse-posture of Eden becomes the legal definition of defilement. Keil & Delitzsch link the verses directly: going on the belly “(equals creeping, Leviticus 11:42) was a mark of the deepest degradation.”

Genesis 3:14 · Leviticus 11:42

basis: shared rare lexeme H1512 gâchôwn (gāḥôn), which occurs in only 2 verses in the entire Hebrew Bible (Genesis 3:14 and Leviticus 11:42); also shared H398 ʼâkal (eat) and H1980 hâlak (go). The rarity of gāḥôn makes this a confirmed verbal link.

“Dust shall be the serpent's food” — the curse remembered by the prophets structural / thematic — confirmed

The clause “dust you will eat” is picked up by the prophets as a fixed emblem of the serpent's abasement. Isaiah's vision of the renewed creation keeps the serpent under sentence even when the wolf and lamb are at peace: “dust shall be the serpent's food” (Isaiah 65:25) — Keil & Delitzsch's cross-reference, marking that the tempter “is to remain sentenced to perpetual degradation” while the rest of creation is delivered. Micah turns it into an image of the nations' humiliation: they “shall lick the dust like a serpent” (Micah 7:17). The link is thematic, not a quotation — shared nāḥāš (serpent) and ‘āphār (dust), no rare lexeme.

Genesis 3:14 · Isaiah 65:25 · Micah 7:17

basis: shared lexemes H5175 nâchâsh (serpent, 28 vv) and H6083 ʻâphâr (dust, 103 vv); Genesis 3:14 / Isaiah 65:25 additionally share H398 ʼâkal (eat). All are common words — the connection is a shared motif (the serpent's dust-eating curse), not a verbal quotation.

“Enmity” — the blood-feud word verbal / quotation — confirmed

The word God uses for the hostility He establishes, ’êybāh, is technical and rare — it occurs only five times in the Hebrew Bible. Outside Genesis 3:15 it appears solely in the law of the manslayer (Numbers 35:21–22), where it distinguishes premeditated murder “in enmity” from accidental killing, and in Ezekiel's oracles against Edom and Philistia, who acted with “perpetual enmity” (Ezekiel 25:15; 35:5). The vocabulary frames the war between the woman's seed and the serpent's not as ordinary aversion but as a deadly, deliberate blood-feud — exactly as the Cambridge Bible glosses it: “the ‘blood-feud’ between the man and the serpent-race.”

Genesis 3:15 · Numbers 35:21 · Ezekiel 25:15 · Ezekiel 35:5

basis: shared rare lexeme H342 ʼêybâh (enmity), which occurs in only 5 verses total (Genesis 3:15; Numbers 35:21–22; Ezekiel 25:15; 35:5). The low frequency of this distinctive legal/prophetic term makes the verbal link confirmed.

“Crush” — the rare verb shûp̄ and its two other homes verbal / quotation — confirmed

The single verb that strikes both the serpent's head and the seed's heel, shûp̄, is among the rarest in Scripture — it occurs in only three verses. The other two are Job's lament that God “crushes me with a tempest” (Job 9:17) and the psalmist's confidence that even darkness cannot “crush”/overwhelm him (Psalm 139:11, where the reading is debated). The very scarcity of the word is what makes Eden's sentence so precise: the same crushing-blow vocabulary, used nowhere else but in the deepest places of human suffering and of God's hiddenness, is here put into the mouth of the divine Judge over the enemy.

Genesis 3:15 · Job 9:17 · Psalm 139:11

basis: shared rare lexeme H7779 shûwph (shûp̄ — crush/bruise), which occurs in only 3 verses in the entire Hebrew Bible (Genesis 3:15; Job 9:17; Psalm 139:11). Rarity confirms the verbal link, though the precise sense in Psalm 139:11 is textually uncertain (so Pulpit, Cambridge).

The heel — the serpent in the way (Jacob and Dan) structural / thematic — confirmed

The serpent strikes the heel, ‘āqēḇ — the lowest, most reachable part of the upright man. The same word names Jacob, the “heel-grabber” (Genesis 25:26), and recurs in Jacob's own blessing of Dan: “Dan shall be a serpent in the way… that bites the horse's heels, so that its rider falls backward” (Genesis 49:17), where nāḥāš (serpent) and ‘āqēḇ (heel) appear together as they do here. John Gill draws the line: the heel is “what the serpent can most easily come at, as at the heels of horses which it bites, Genesis 49:17.” The connection is thematic — common words, a shared image — not a quotation.

Genesis 3:15 · Genesis 49:17 · Genesis 25:26

basis: Genesis 3:15 / 49:17 share H5175 nâchâsh (serpent) and H6119 ʻâqêb (heel, 13 vv); Genesis 25:26 shares H6119 ʻâqêb. Both lexemes are common, so this is a confirmed shared-motif (serpent-bites-heel) link, not a verbal quotation.

“The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20) typological

Paul's promise to the Romans — “the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” — is the New Testament's most direct echo of this verse: the head-crushing of the serpent, now extended to the whole church. Keil & Delitzsch retain the sense “crush” for shûp̄ precisely “in harmony with the word συντρίβειν in Romans 16:20.” Held honestly: Romans is Greek and Genesis is Hebrew, so there is no shared Strong's lexeme to confirm a verbal link — Paul writes syntribō, not a transliteration of shûp̄. The connection is real and ancient, but cross-Testament; it is structural/typological (the same head-crushing motif consummated), and is named as such here rather than asserted as a quotation.

Genesis 3:15 · Romans 16:20

basis: cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew): the Verifier finds no shared original-language lexeme, since a Hebrew Strong's number cannot match a Greek one. The link is the head-crushing motif, consummated — Paul's συντρίβειν echoing the sense of shûp̄. Widely held and ancient, but tiered typological/structural, never verbal, because the verbal basis cannot be machine-confirmed across Testaments.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The seed of the woman — born of woman to destroy the devil's works ancient/widely-held

The most ancient Christian reading of Genesis 3:15 takes the “seed of the woman” to culminate in Christ. Benson states the traditional view: “her seed — that is, her offspring, first and principally CHRIST… whose alone work it is to bruise the serpent's head.” Three grammatical oddities feed the reading: the seed is reckoned through the woman (not, as Hebrew usually counts, through the man); the pronoun narrows to a singular masculine He; and the victory in the second clause falls on the serpent itself, not its seed. Keil & Delitzsch trace the “seed” through divine selection — Seth, Shem, Isaac — until it “culminated in Christ… the second Adam.” The New Testament names the fulfilment: “born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4), come “to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Held honestly: the Cambridge Bible cautions that the verse alone names no personal Messiah, so this is read as the canon's trajectory, not as a bare prediction.

Genesis 3:15 · Galatians 4:4 · 1 John 3:8

The crushed heel and the crushed head — Calvary as the one blow with two outcomes ancient/widely-held

The single verb shûp̄, striking both head and heel, has long been read as the cross itself: in the very act of bruising the Savior's heel, the serpent's head is crushed. Matthew Henry's reading (on this unit) sees Christ's “sufferings and death; pointed at in Satan's bruising his heel… But while the heel is bruised on earth, the Head is in heaven,” and “by his death he gave a fatal blow to the devil's kingdom.” The asymmetry the Hebrew preserves — a mortal head-wound answered by a survivable heel-wound (K&D's majus and minus) — is the shape of the gospel: the Deliverer is wounded but not destroyed; the enemy is destroyed. Hebrews 2:14 names it: Christ shared flesh and blood “that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” This typological reading is cross-Testament and so structural, not verbally machine-confirmable, but it is ancient and widely held.

Genesis 3:15 · Hebrews 2:14 · Romans 16:20

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). The named voices are quoted verbatim from public-domain commentaries on Genesis 3:14–15 (Ellicott, Benson, Henry, Barnes, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Poole, Gill, Geneva Study Bible, Cambridge Bible, Pulpit Commentary, Keil & Delitzsch), each attributed and linked to its BibleHub source. The Hebrew is the Masoretic tradition; transliterations, parsings, literal renderings, and the “where the English smooths the Hebrew” notes are this tool's own work (⚙) — careful but fallible; check them against a lexicon (BDB, HALOT) and a standard grammar.

Three lexical claims carry the weight of this unit and were machine-verified: gāḥôn (H1512, “belly”) occurs in only 2 verses; ’êybāh (H342, “enmity”) in only 5; shûp̄ (H7779, “crush”) in only 3. These low frequencies are what license the “verbal — confirmed” badges. Note honestly that the sense of shûp̄ is contested: the Pulpit and Cambridge commentaries record rival renderings (“bruise,” “lie in wait for,” “watch”), and the reading in Psalm 139:11 is itself uncertain. The lexical link is confirmed; the meaning is argued.

One thread is left deliberately at a lower tier than tradition would assert: Genesis 3:15 → Romans 16:20 is tiered typological, not verbal. Genesis is Hebrew and Romans is Greek; the Verifier cannot match a Hebrew Strong's number to a Greek one, so no verbal basis can be machine-confirmed across Testaments — Paul's συντρίβειν is the same motif, not the same lexeme. The connection is real and ancient; the tier reflects what can be proven, not what can be believed. ⚙ marks machine synthesis throughout; ✦ marks the human, public-domain voices. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)