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15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your seed and her seed;
he shall bruise your head,[a]
    and you shall bruise his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children,
yet your desire shall be for your husband,
    and he shall rule over you.”

17 And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,
    and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
    in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

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Footnotes

  1. 3.15 he shall bruise your head: i.e., the seed of the woman, that is, mankind descended from Eve, will eventually gain the victory over the powers of evil. This victory will, of course, be gained through the work of the Messiah who is par excellence the seed of the woman. The Latin Vulgate has the reading ipsa conteret, “she shall bruise.” Some Old Latin manuscripts have this reading and it occurs also in St. Augustine, De Genesi contra Manichaeos, II, which is earlier than St. Jerome’s translation. It could be due originally to a copyist’s mistake, which was then seen to contain a genuine meaning—namely, that Mary, too, would have her share in the victory, inasmuch as she was mother of the Savior.

15 And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring[a](A) and hers;(B)
he will crush[b] your head,(C)
    and you will strike his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
    with painful labor you will give birth to children.(D)
Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you.(E)

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’(F)

“Cursed(G) is the ground(H) because of you;
    through painful toil(I) you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.(J)

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 3:15 Or seed
  2. Genesis 3:15 Or strike