Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/180

directly on the woman, and indirectly on God who gave her to him.—13. The woman in like manner exculpates herself by pleading (truly enough) that she had been deceived by the serpent.—The whole situation is now laid bare, and nothing remains but to pronounce sentence. No question is put to the serpent, because his evil motive is understood: he has acted just as might have been expected of him. Calv. says, "the beast had no sense of sin, and the devil no hope of pardon."

14-19. This section contains the key to the significance of the story of the Fall. It is the first example of a frequently recurring motive of the Genesis narratives, the idea, viz., that the more perplexing facts in the history of men and peoples are the working out of a doom or 'weird' pronounced of old under divine inspiration, or (as in this case) by the Almighty Himself: see 4¹⁵ 8^21ff. 9^25ff. 16¹² 27^{27ff. 39f.} 48^19ff., ch. 49; cf. Nu. 23 f., Dt. 33. Here certain fixed adverse conditions of the universal human lot are traced back to a primæval curse uttered by Yahwe in consequence of man's first transgression. See, further, p. 95 below.—The form of the oracles is poetic; but the structure is irregular, and no definite metrical scheme can be made out.

14, 15. The curse on the serpent is legible, partly in its degraded form and habits (¹⁴), and partly in the deadly feud between it and the human race (¹⁵).—14. on thy belly, etc.] The assumption undoubtedly is that originally the serpent moved erect, but not necessarily that its organism was changed (e.g. by cutting off its legs, etc. Rabb.). As a matter of fact most snakes have the power of erecting a considerable part of their bodies; and in mytho-

(Greek characters).—13. (Hebrew characters)] So commonly with (Hebrew characters); with other vbs. (Hebrew characters) (G-K. § 136 c; Dav. § 7 (c)).

14. (Hebrew characters)] On this use of (Hebrew characters) (= e numero), see G-K. § 119 w, and cf. Ex. 19⁵, Dt. 14² 33²⁴, Ju. 5²⁴ etc. Sta.'s argument (ZATW, xvii. 209) for deleting (Hebrew characters), on the ground that the serpent belongs to the category of (Hebrew characters) but not to (Hebrew characters), is logical, but hardly convincing.—(Hebrew characters)] Probably from [root] (Hebrew characters) (Aram.) = 'curve' or 'bend' (De., BDB), occurs again only Lv. 11⁴², of reptiles. V renders pectus, G combines (Greek characters)