Verse 14. And God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed among all living things and beasts of the earth: upon your breast you shall crawl, and you shall eat earth all the days of your life.¹

VERS. 14. Et ait Deus ad serpentem, Quia fecisti hoc, maledictus es inter omnia animantia & bestias terrae: super pectus tuum gradieris, & terram comedes cunctis diebus vitae tuae.

...by which the curse of the serpent was expressed, we have thought interpretations should be added — pious indeed, and eloquent, and by no means unlearned — which we judged that to read would be as most pleasant, so, if they were omitted, would be troublesome to the reader. And so Rupert (book 2, On the Victory of the Word of God, chapter 15), explaining the aforesaid words: 'Certainly,' he says, 'neither to the woman did he say, You are cursed, nor to the man, You are cursed, but only this, Cursed is the earth in your work; of which earth the curse is nothing other than the manifold and frequent affliction by which, through various events, the earth being corrupted and worsened, man is afflicted. To the serpent alone he said, You shall be cursed — by which saying, indeed, the firm and immutable sentence of eternal damnation is to be understood. For although the letter so sounds that it can be understood of the living serpent, yet nonetheless, and much more, the whole ought to be understood of the serpent the devil. Otherwise, how will it be reckoned to him as a curse, or as the penalty of a curse, what was said to him, Upon your breast you shall crawl — since he had this very thing from nature before the devil used it for the perdition of man? More, therefore, to that ancient serpent was this set as a curse: that he crawl upon his breast, and eat earth all the days — that is, that upon men only, who are so earth that they do not desire or look to heaven, he seek and devour with insatiable hatred, with an impenitent heart; so given over to a reprobate sense that, against his own intention, always, while he strives to hinder the good of God concerning the elect, he rather furthers and helps the purpose — which is, in a wonderful way, to crawl upon his own breast. Moreover, whatever was said to the woman and to the man — even the very death of the body, which the merciful God, imposing, says, Because you are dust, and to dust you shall return — are the words of one rebuking and desiring to save, and yet [the words directed] to that man turned away, wise with thorns, so that at least the vexation alone may give understanding to the hearing, and make man mindful of his condition, that, humbled, he may be able to be corrected and saved.' Thus Rupert.³

bus maledictio serpentis expressa est, interpretationes adscribendas duximus, pias nempe, disertasque, nec sane ineruditas: scilicet quas legere ut periucundum, ita si praetermissae essent, molestum lectori futurum fuisse existimavimus. Itaque Rupertus lib. 2. de Victoria verbi Dei cap. 15. supradicta verba explanans: Profecto, inquit, neque mulieri, Maledicta es, neque viro Maledictus dixit, sed tantum hoc Maledicta terra in opere tuo: cuius videlicet terrae maledictio, non aliud est quam multimoda & frequens afflictio, qua per varios eventus terra ex eo corrupta & deteriorata affligitur homo. Soli serpenti dixit Maledictus eris, quo videlicet dicto firma & immutabilis intelligenda est sententia aeterna damnationis: quamvis enim ita littera sonet, ut de animante serpente possit intelligi: nihilo tamen minus, & multo amplius de serpente diabolo totum oportet intelligi. Alioquin quomodo pro maledicto, vel poena maledicti reputabitur illi, quod dictum est ei, Super pectus tuum gradieris, cum hoc ipsum prius a natura habuerit, quam diabolus eo usus fuit ad perditionem hominis? Magis ergo illi serpenti antiquo hoc positum est in maledicto, ut supra pectus suum gradiatur, & terram comedat cunctis diebus, id est, ut super homines eos tantum, qui ita terra sunt ut non desiderent aut respiciant coelum, quaerat, devoret odio insatiabili, corde impoenitenti: ita datus in reprobum sensum, ut contra intentionem suam semper bonum Dei circa electos, dum impedire nititur, magis expediat & adiuvet propositum, quod est miro modo gradi super pectus proprium. Porro ad mulierem & ad virum quaecumque dicta sunt, etiam ipsa mors corporis, quam imponens misericors Deus, Quia pulvis es, ait, & in pulverem reverteris, verba sunt corripientis, & salvare cupientis, & tamen illius hominis aversi, sapientis spinis, ut saltem sola vexatio det intellectum auditui, memoremque faciat hominem suae conditionis, ut humiliatus corrigi possit & salvari. Sic Rupertus.