The Snake is Cursed (Gen 3:14)

Into and Out of the Garden

¹⁴ YHWH God said to the snake … וַיֹּאמֶר֩ יְ׳הוָֹ֨ה אֱלֹהִ֥ים ׀ אֶֽל־הַנָּחָשׁ֮

No questions this time — and no answers. The snake is about to hit the fan.

As you remember from my quick interview with the snake in the studio commissary way back when, he was just reciting lines. He didn’t understand his character’s motivation … but he’s a professional and got the job done. The earthling and his woman ate from the Tree of Sorting and became human. Thanks, Snake. Your work here is finished.

But not quite. It is thanks, but no thanks:

“Because you did this … כִּ֣י עָשִׂ֣יתָ זֹּאת֒

- You’re taking the fall, Charlie!

- Me? For what?

- “This!”

- ???

In truth, it’s not exactly clear what “this” is that the snake is supposed to have done. The two clearest possibilities are these:

• What we saw him do in vv. 1 and 4–5, that is, he spoke to the woman.

• What the woman accused him (in v. 13) of doing, that is, messing with her mind.

I’ll remind you that we only saw the end of the conversation between the snake and the woman. In what we saw, however, he did not “mess with her mind,” nor did he “entice” or “trick” her (as other translations specify). In v. 1, he merely asks a question — perhaps, as some of the commentators would say, a conversation starter, but not a statement that has anything mind-messing in it. Vv. 4–5 do have three statements made by the snake, which deserve further examination: