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.”

LXX Genesis 3:15

Septuagint

14 And the Lord God said to the snake, “Because you have done this, cursed are you from all the domestic animals and from all the wild animals of the earth; upon your chest and belly you shall go, and earth you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and between the woman and between your offspring and between her offspring; he will watch your head, and you will watch his heel.” 16 And to the woman he said, “I will increasingly increase your pains and your groaning; with pains you will bring forth children. And you will return to your husband, and he will dominate you.”

 Notes and References

"... A further punishment on the serpent is the continual enmity between serpents and mankind ... How this enmity is actualized is explained in the second part of the verse. In the Hebrew this is mutually expressed by a difficult verbal root. This verb also occurs at Job 9:17 and Psalm 139:11, but neither is any help in establishing its meaning. It has been variously interpreted to mean "crush," "bruise," or "pant after." The Septuagint of Genesis also had trouble with the verb and so used a neutral verb 'to watch carefully.' The translator understood the mutually wary relations between man and snakes and chose a verb to bring this out ..."

Wevers, John William Notes on the Greek Text of Genesis (p. 44) Scholars Press, 1993

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