New Living Translation
Genesis 3:15
15And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike 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 serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.” 14Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” 16Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” 17And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
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, and many were bitten and died.
- Amos 9:3Even if they hide at the very top of Mount Carmel, I will search them out and capture them. Even if they hide at the bottom of the ocean, I will send the sea serpent after them to bite them.
- Mark 16:18They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”
- Luke 10:19Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.
- Acts 28:3As Paul gathered an armful of sticks and was laying them on the fire, a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, bit him on the hand.
- Romans 3:13“Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their tongues are filled with lies.” “Snake venom drips from their lips.”
- Matthew 3:7But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to watch him baptize, he denounced them. “You brood of snakes!” he exclaimed. “Who warned you to flee the coming wrath?
- Matthew 12:34You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say.
- Matthew 13:38The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one.
- Matthew 23:33Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?
- John 8:44For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.
- Acts 13:10Then he said, “You son of the devil, full of every sort of deceit and fraud, and enemy of all that is good! Will you never stop perverting the true ways of the Lord?
- 1 John 3:8But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.
- Psalms 132:11The Lord swore an oath to David with a promise he will never take back: “I will place one of your descendants on your throne.
- Isaiah 7:14All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).
- Jeremiah 31:22How long will you wander, my wayward daughter? For the Lord will cause something new to happen— Israel will embrace her God.”
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
New Living Translation — © 1996, 2004, 2015 Tyndale House Foundation
Commentaries