God said unto the serpent In passing sentence, God begins where the sin began, with the serpent, which, although only an irrational creature, and therefore not subject to a law, nor capable of sin and guilt, yet, being the instrument of the devil's wiles and malice, is punished as other beasts have been when abused by the sin of man, and this partly for the punishment, and partly for the instruction of man, their lord and governor.
Upon thy belly shalt thou go And “no longer on thy feet, or half erect,” say Mr. Henry and Mr. Wesley, (as it is probable this serpent, and others of the same species, had before done,) “but thou shalt crawl along, thy belly cleaving to the earth,” the dust of which thou shalt take in with thy food. And thou, and all thy kind, shall be reckoned most despicable and detestable, (Isaiah 65:25; Micah 7:17,) and be the constant objects of the hatred of mankind. But this sentence, directed against the serpent, chiefly respected the infernal spirit that actuated it, and his curse is intended under that of the serpent, and is expressed in terms which, indeed, properly and literally agreed to the serpent; but were mystically to be understood as fulfilled in the devil; who is “cursed above all irrational animals; is left under the power of invincible folly and malice, and, in disgrace, is depressed below the vilest beasts, and appointed to unspeakable misery when they are insensible in death.” Brown.