1. This "curse section" began right after both Adam and Eve admitted that they had disobeyed God and ate the fruit. (NET) Note that God asks no question of the serpent, does not call for confession, as he did to the man and the woman; there is only the announcement of the curse.
2. Curse to the serpent
a. Its curse are above all others. It will be at the bottom: on the belly you will crawl, and dust you will eat. And it will be all the days of its life.
b. Its curse continues in its offspring and the offspring of the woman.
(NET) Though the conflict will actually involve the serpent’s offspring (snakes) and the woman’s offspring (human beings), v. 15b for rhetorical effect depicts the conflict as being between the serpent and the woman’s offspring, as if the serpent will outlive the woman. The statement is personalized for the sake of the addressee (the serpent) and reflects the ancient Semitic concept of corporate solidarity, which emphasizes the close relationship between a progenitor and his offspring.
c. it is a curse of hostile relationship. They will strike each other. This is probably due to the fact that the conversation of the woman and the serpent was the beginning of the Fall.
(NET)
v.15b he will strike your head, ( A crushing blow to the head would be potentially fatal.)
and you will strike his heel.” (A bite on the heel from a poisonous serpent is potentially fatal.)
The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) is understood as contrastive. Both clauses place the subject before the verb, a construction that is sometimes used to indicate synchronic action (see Judg 15:14).
The repetition of the verb “attack,” as well as the word order, suggests mutual hostility is being depicted, not the defeat of the serpent. If the serpent’s defeat were being portrayed, it is odd that the alleged description of his death comes first in the sentence. If he has already been crushed by the woman’s “Seed,” how can he bruise his heel?
2. As the representative of their kind, the curse the serpent and Adam began with, " because you have done this... you will..." But not to Eve, v.16, "I will greatly increase your labor pains, with pain...you will want to control...but he will dominate..."
Her curse is both physical and emotional pain with a failure to control.
(BKC) Because Eve’s desire probably refers in this context to her prompting Adam to sin, it is better to translate the verse “Your desire was for your husband.” Having overstepped her bounds in this, she would now be mastered by him.
3. The reason of Adam's curse was his yielding to his wife and not to God. "Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,’ " When what the wife said was opposite to what God said Adam chose his wife not his Creator.
The curse of Adam אָדָם is related to the ground אֲדָמָה for "out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return"
Sadly, we human, was created as the one who supposed to have dominion over the earth but brought curse to it until one day Jesus Christ comes back and bring the revive to it.
(NET) The whole creation, Paul writes in Rom 8:22, is still groaning under this curse, waiting for the day of redemption.
Conclusion: (BKC) These punishments represent retaliatory justice. Adam and Eve sinned by eating; they would suffer in order to eat. She manipulated her husband; she would be mastered by her husband. The serpent destroyed the human race; he will be destroyed.
God also made gracious provisions. Mankind will die and not live forever in this chaotic state, and children will be born (v. 16) so that the human race will endure and continue. Ultimate victory will come through Christ, the Seed (Gal. 3:16) of the woman (cf. Gal. 4:4, “born of a woman”).
No matter how hard people try to do away with male dominion, agonizing labor, painful childbearing, and death, these evils will continue because sin is present. They are fruits of sin.
Reflection: As part of the human race, I need to be responsible for my sins. There will be consequences. As a woman, I know the controlling will bring me pain, because I will not be success. If I bent the will of my husband and made him obey me instead of God we will both suffer. Finally, my sin not only affects my husband, but the entire earth, which was created as a gift from God for human being.
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