Genesis 3:14

Summary

Yehovah Elohim addresses the snake directly, declaring that because of what it did, it is cursed above all other creatures, condemned to move on its belly and consume dust for the duration of its life. The verse is structured as a direct speech introduced by a causal clause and followed by a pronouncement with two resulting actions.

Key words

• ki ("for/because", H3588A) — introduces the causal clause that grounds the curse: the punishment follows explicitly from a prior act ("you have done this").
• 'a.Rur ("[are] cursed", H0779) — qal passive participle, masculine singular, describing a fixed state imposed on the subject 'a.Tah ("you"), rather than an ongoing verbal action.
• mi. ("more than", H9006) — comparative preposition attached to kol ("all", H3605), used twice (vv. 13,19) to rank the snake below/beneath ha.behemah ("the livestock") and chayat hasadeh ("animal of the field").
• ge.cho.ne.kha ("your belly", H1512+H9021) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, naming the specific body part involved in the mode of locomotion described by te.Lekh ("you will go", H1980G, qal imperfect).
• kol-ye.mei chai.yei.kha ("all the days of your life", H3605+H3117G+H2416E+H9021) — a double construct chain ("all," "days of," "life of," "your") that frames the imperfect verbs te.Lekh and to.Khal as continuing indefinitely into the future.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative va-yo.mer ("and he said", H0559), a standard verb-initial construction that moves the story forward, followed by the double divine name Yehovah 'Elohim. The speech itself is introduced by ki ("for", H3588A) plus a qal perfect verb, 'a.Si.ta ("you have done", H6213A), marking the causal basis of what follows as a completed act. The curse formula 'a.Rur 'a.Tah places the passive participle before the pronoun, a fronting pattern that in Hebrew emphasizes the state of being cursed itself rather than the identity of who is cursed. The comparative mi-kol construction, repeated across two parallel construct phrases ("all the livestock" and "every animal of the field"), positions the snake's curse in relation to, rather than in isolation from, other creatures.

The two resulting actions, te.Lekh ("you will go", H1980G) and to.Khal ("you will eat", H0398), both qal imperfect, denote actions with ongoing or repeated aspect rather than a single event, reinforced by the closing construct chain kol-yemei chayeikha ("all the days of your life"), which sets the temporal scope for both.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ge.cho.ne.kha ("your belly", H1512) with two nouns, ἐπὶ τῷ στήθει σου καὶ τῇ κοιλίᾳ ("on your breast and your belly"), where the Hebrew has a single term. The Vulgate uses only super pectus tuum ("upon your breast"), diverging further from the Hebrew's specific reference to the belly. Additionally, the LXX and Vulgate use ἀπό and inter respectively for the comparative mi-kol ("more than all", H9006+H3605), rendering the sense as separation ("away from/among") rather than the comparative ranking ("above/more than") expressed by the Hebrew preposition.