God’s Word Translation
Genesis 3:15
15I will make you and the woman hostile toward each other. I will make your descendants and her descendant hostile toward each other. He will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
Genesis 3:15 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
- New International Version (NIV)And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
- English Standard Version (ESV)I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
- New King James Version (NKJV)And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
Context of Genesis 3:15
13Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The snake deceived me, and I ate,” the woman answered. 14So the Lord God said to the snake, “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all the wild or domestic animals. You will crawl on your belly. You will be the lowest of animals as long as you live. I will make you and the woman hostile toward each other. I will make your descendants and her descendant hostile toward each other. He will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel.” 16He said to the woman, “I will increase your pain and your labor when you give birth to children. Yet, you will long for your husband, and he will rule you.” 17Then he said to the man, “You listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree, although I commanded you, ‘You must never eat its fruit.’ The ground is cursed because of you. Through hard work you will eat ⌞food that comes⌟ from it every day of your life.
Read all of Genesis 3Genesis 3:15 word by word
וְאֵיבָ֣ה׀ אָשִׁ֗ית בֵּֽינְךָ֙ וּבֵ֣ין הָֽאִשָּׁ֔ה וּבֵ֥ין זַרְעֲךָ֖ וּבֵ֣ין זַרְעָ֑הּ ה֚וּא יְשׁוּפְךָ֣ רֹ֔אשׁ וְאַתָּ֖ה תְּשׁוּפֶ֥נּוּ עָקֵֽב׃ סRead the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
- And I will putשִׁיתshîyth · to set: putH7896
- enmityאֵיבָה'êybâh · enmityH342
- between thee and the womanאִשָּׁה'ishshâh nâshîym · womanH802
- and between thy seedזֶ֫רַעzera‛ · seed: childrenH2233
- it shall bruiseשׁוּףshûph · to bruiseH7779
- thy headרֹאשׁrô'sh · headH7218
- his heelעָקֵב‛âqêb ‛iqqebâh · heelH6119
Cross-references for Genesis 3:15
- Numbers 21:6So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people. They bit the people, and many of the Israelites died.
- Amos 9:3Even if they hide on top of Mount Carmel, I will look for them and take them from there. Even if they hide from me at the bottom of the sea, I will command a sea snake to bite them.
- Mark 16:18They will pick up snakes, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them. They will place their hands on the sick and cure them.”
- Luke 10:19I have given you the authority to trample snakes and scorpions and to destroy the enemy’s power. Nothing will hurt you.
- Acts 28:3Paul gathered a bundle of brushwood and put it on the fire. The heat forced a poisonous snake out of the brushwood. The snake bit Paul’s hand and wouldn’t let go.
- Romans 3:13Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deception. Their lips hide the venom of poisonous snakes.
- Matthew 3:7But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized, he said to them, “You poisonous snakes! Who showed you how to flee from God’s coming anger?
- Matthew 12:34You poisonous snakes! How can you evil people say anything good? Your mouth says what comes from inside you.
- Matthew 13:38The field is the world. The good seeds are those who belong to the kingdom. The weeds are those who belong to the evil one.
- Matthew 23:33“You snakes! You poisonous snakes! How can you escape being condemned to hell?
- John 8:44You come from your father, the devil, and you desire to do what your father wants you to do. The devil was a murderer from the beginning. He has never been truthful. He doesn’t know what the truth is. Whenever he tells a lie, he’s doing what comes naturally to him. He’s a liar and the father of lies.
- Acts 13:10and said, “You are full of dirty tricks and schemes, you son of the devil! You hate everything that has God’s approval. Quit trying to distort the truth about the way the Lord wants people to live.
- 1 John 3:8The person who lives a sinful life belongs to the devil, because the devil has been committing sin since the beginning. The reason that the Son of God appeared was to destroy what the devil does.
- Psalms 132:11The Lord swore an oath to David. This is a truth he will not take back: “I will set one of your own descendants on your throne.
- Isaiah 7:14So the Lord himself will give you this sign: A virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and she will name him Immanuel [God Is With Us].
- Jeremiah 31:22How long will you wander around, you unfaithful people? The Lord will create something new on earth: A woman will protect a man.
Commentaries on Genesis 3:15
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 15I will put enmity between thee and the woman - This has been generally supposed to apply to a certain enmity subsisting between men and serpents; but this is rather a fancy than a reality. It is yet to be discovered that the serpentine race have any peculiar enmity against mankind, nor is there any proof that men hate serpents more than they do other noxious animals. Men have much more enmity to the common rat and magpie than they have to all the serpents…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 8-21Verses 8-21 - XVI. The Judgment 15. שׁוּף shûp “bruise, wound.” ͂ (= ͂ ?) tērein ̓́ ektribein Job 9:17, ͂ katapatein Psalm 139:11, ́ suntribein Romans 16:20. 16. תשׁוּקה teshûqâh “desire, inclination.” ́ apostrofee ̓́ epistrophē Genesis 3:8-13; the sentence pronounced upon each, Genesis 3:14-19; and certain particulars following thereupon, Genesis 3:20-21. Genesis 3:8-9 The voice, we conceive, is the thunder of the approach of God and his call to Adam…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 14-15Verses 14-15 God passes sentence; and he begins where the sin began, with the serpent. The devil's instruments must share in the devil's punishments. Under the cover of the serpent, the devil is sentenced to be degraded and accursed of God; detested and abhorred of all mankind: also to be destroyed and ruined at last by the great Redeemer, signified by the breaking of his head. War is proclaimed between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 15enmity: The prophet Isaiah looks ahead to a future when the Messiah's kingdom will restore all creation to peace, like the garden of Eden before humans disobeyed God (see Isaiah 11:8). her seed (or offspring): This term can refer to a single descendant or many. In ancient Near Eastern culture, "you and your offspring" (see Genesis 28:14) describes a shared identity. Here, it describes ongoing hostility between humans and snakes. The pattern is set using…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1515. thy seed--not only evil spirits, but wicked men. seed of the woman--the Messiah, or His Church [Calvin, Hengstenberg]. I will put enmity between thee and the woman--God can only be said to do so by leaving "the serpent and his seed to the influence of their own corruption; and by those measures which, pursued for the salvation of men, fill Satan and his angels with envy and rage." thou shalt bruise his heel--The serpent wounds the heel that crushes…Read the comment
Topics related to Genesis 3:15
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Genesis 3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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