Genesis 3:15

Genesis 3:15, in plain English

God declares that He will create enmity between the serpent and the woman, between their offspring, and that the woman's offspring will ultimately crush the serpent's head, though the serpent will strike at the offspring's heel.

Why it's here

This is the first promise of a Savior in Scripture. God is saying that the serpent's rebellion will be overthrown, but the victory will come at a cost — the seed of the woman will be wounded even as it wins.

Who's speaking

The LORD God

Where it sits in the story

This verse is the hinge of redemption. Every believer looks back to this moment, seeing it as the promise that God hasn't abandoned humanity, that He will ultimately defeat evil through a descendant of the woman. Christians read this as pointing to Jesus.

The scholarly reading

God declares that enmity will exist between the serpent and the woman, and between their respective seeds; the woman's seed will crush the serpent's head while the serpent will strike the seed's heel.

Language and setting

This verse is theologically dense and has generated centuries of interpretive tradition. The phrase 'I will put enmity' (*eibah*) introduces not merely natural animosity but divinely ordained opposition. 'Seed' (*zera*) is a collective noun, but the subsequent pronoun 'He' (*hu*) shifts to singular, suggesting a particular figure within that collective. Christian exegesis, beginning with patristic fathers (Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and others) and systematized through medieval and Reformation commentary (Aquinas, Calvin, Mather), has consistently identified the singular seed as Christ. The language of 'crushing the head' and 'striking the heel' employs anatomical specificity: the head is the seat of life and authority; the heel is vulnerable but less lethal. The asymmetry suggests ultimate victory (the seed's crushing of the serpent's head) despite apparent injury (the heel-strike the seed will receive). This verse functions as the protoevangelium—the first gospel promise in Scripture.

Voice

God, articulating the cosmic promise that frames all subsequent redemptive history.

Significance

Every narrative of redemption in Scripture—from Abraham to Moses to David to the Prophets—is oriented toward this promise. The New Testament writers, particularly Paul in Romans 16:20 ('the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet') and John in Revelation 12:5, 19:11-21, interpret this verse as the hermeneutical key to understanding Christ's work. The promise transforms the Fall narrative from tragedy into the prelude to redemption.

13Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

14So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life.

15And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

16To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

17And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

Read all of Genesis 3 — Something goes terribly wrong in paradise. But hidden in the words of judgment is the first whisper of a rescue plan.