Genesis 3:15

Hebrew Bible

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.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you.”

Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 3:15

Targum

14 Then the Lord God brought the three of them to judgment, and he said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all beasts of the field Upon your belly you shall go about, and your feet shall be cut off and you will cast off your skin once every seven years, and the poison of death will be in your mouth, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between the offspring of your children and the offspring of her children And when the children of the woman keep the commandments of the Law, they will take aim and strike you on your head But when they forsake the commandments of the Law you will take aim and wound them on their heels For them, however, there will be a remedy; but for you there will be no remedy; and they are to make peace in the end, in the days of the King Messiah” 16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your affliction in the blood of virginity and in your pregnancies; in pain you shall bear children, yet your desire shall be for your husband; he shall rule over you both for righteousness and for sin”

 Notes and References

"... The idea of “keeping” or “toiling in” the Law seems to have been introduced into this verse because the translators took the verb שׁוֹפֵף in יִשׁוֹפְךָ רֹאשׁ, “he shall bruise your head,” to be derived from סָפַף, “gasp, pant,” which they took to refer to the striving and the effort required in the observance of the Torah. By then linking the verb שׁוֹפֵף with the same verb סָפַף in the sense of “pant after, long for,” and thus “strive to reach a goal,” the translators (נְפִיל, פ, ו, נ, ל, Ps.-J.; cf. נְפִילמָגוֹן) derive the idea of “take aim” from יִשׁוֹפְךָ and צֹפֵף, “he/you shall bruise.” The Targums translate שׁוֹפֵף in those latter words a second time, taking it to mean “strike” in יִשׁוֹפְךָ, and “wound” or “bite” in צֹפֵף. The underlying theory in the Targums of this verse, namely, that Israel’s prosperity depends on her observance of the Law, is commonplace in the Targums ..."

Maher, Michael Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Genesis (p. 27) Liturgical Press, 1992

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