Genesis 3:14

Hebrew Bible

12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” 13 So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the cattle and all the living creatures of the field! On your belly you will crawl and dust you will eat all the days of your life. 15 And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Isaiah 11:8

Hebrew Bible

6 A wolf will reside with a lamb, and a leopard will lie down with a young goat; an ox and a young lion will graze together, as a small child leads them along. 7 A cow and a bear will graze together, their young will lie down together. A lion, like an ox, will eat straw. 8 A baby will play over the hole of a snake; over the nest of a serpent an infant will put his hand. 9 They will no longer injure or destroy on my entire royal mountain. For there will be universal submission to the Lord’s sovereignty, just as the waters completely cover the sea.

 Notes and References

"... A piece of evidence that supports the assertion that Isaiah 11:6–9 offers a glimpse of the new creation is the fact that the text is later picked up and quoted at Isaiah 65:25 ... The text is a shortened quotation of Isaiah 11:6–9. Set within a pronouncement of the new heavens and earth that the Lord promises to create (65:17–25), Isaiah 11:6–9 acquires significant color in this new context. What perhaps was unclear in Isaiah 11 is here made explicit: the era of peace and justice foreseen in Isaiah 11 is nothing other than the age of the “new heavens and new earth” (Isaiah 65:17). Noteworthy is that the “viper” language of Isaiah 11:8 has been transformed into an allusion to Genesis 3:14, thus establishing a direct connection to the original creation account. The portrayal of Isaiah 11:8 that pictures young children innocently playing around the holes of vipers is replaced with he Hebrew ֹמְחַל רָפָע שָׁחָנְו: “but the serpent—dust shall be his food!” This is a direct allusion to Genesis 3:14 and the curse that God spoke upon the serpent for deceiving Eve and plunging God’s pristine creation into sin and ruin. The implication of the allusion at Isaiah 65:25 is that God has fully thwarted and reversed the effects of the serpent’s treachery in his establishment of a renewed and perfected creation. The serpent himself remains cursed and unredeemed as perpetual punishment for his rebellion ..."

Beetham, Christopher A. Echoes of Scripture in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians (p. 66) Brill, 2008

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.