And the Lord God said unto the serpent
And to the devil in it; for what follows may be applied to both;
literally to the serpent, and mystically to Satan; both are
punished, and that very justly, the serpent in being the
instrument Satan made use of, and is cursed for his sake, as the
earth for man's; and the punishing the instrument as well as the
principal, the more discovers God's detestation of the act for
which they are punished, as appears in other instances, (
Exodus
21:28 ) ( Leviticus
20:15 ) . Nor could it have been agreeable to the justice of
God, to punish the instrument and let the principal go free; and
therefore the following sentence must be considered as respecting
them both: and it must be observed, that no pains is taken to
convince Satan of his sin, or any time spent in reasoning and
debating with him about it, he being an hardened apostate spirit,
and doomed to everlasting destruction, and without any hope of
mercy and forgiveness; but to show the divine resentment of his
crime, the following things are said: because thou hast
done this;
beguiled the woman, and drawn her in to eat of the forbidden
fruit, [thou art] cursed above all cattle, and above every
beast of the
field;
the serpent is the most hateful of all creatures, and especially
the most detestable to men, and Satan is accursed of God,
banished from the divine presence, is laid up in chains of
darkness, and reserved for the judgment of the great day, and
consigned to everlasting wrath and ruin, signified by everlasting
fire prepared for the devil and his angels; upon thy belly
shalt thou go,
or "breast", as Aben Ezra, and others; Jarchi thinks it had feet
before, but were cut off on this account, and so became a
reptile, as some serpents now have feet like geese, as Pliny
F24 relates; or it might go in a more
erect posture on its hinder feet, as the basilisk, which is one
kind of serpent, now does; and if it was a flying one, bright and
shining in the air, now it should lose all its glory, and grovel
in the dust, and with pain, or at least with difficulty, creep
along on its breast and belly; and this, as it respects the
punishment of the devil, may signify, that he being cast down
from the realms of bliss and glory, shall never be able to rise
more, and regain his former place and dignity: And dust
shall thou eat all the days of thy life;
meaning not that particular serpent, and as long as that should
live, but all of the same kind, as long as there were any in the
world, even to the end of it: it is probable, that when the
serpent moved in a more erect posture, it lived on herbs and
plants as other creatures; but when it was obliged to go upon its
belly or breast, it licked up the dust of the earth, and which it
could not well avoid in eating whatsoever food it did; and some
serpents are said to live upon it. This is applicable to Satan,
designs the mean and abject condition in which he is, and the
sordid food he lives upon; no more on angels' food and joys of
heaven, but on the base, mean, earthly, and impure lusts of men;
and this will be his case, condition, and circumstances, for
ever.