(3) And God cursed the serpent, and was wroth with it for ever. . . .

(3) And the serpent said unto the woman, " Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that on the day ye shall eat thereof, your eyes will be opened, and ye will be as gods, and ye will know good and evil."

(98) Moses writes here as if the Serpent had beguiled Eve, because God cursed it, [and said;] That it should eat Earth, and creep upon its Belly; but Moses here puts the Vail before our Eyes, that he cannot be looked in the Face. For all Prophecies stand in dark Woods, that the Devil may not know [nor apprehend them,] and learn the Times, and that he may not strow his false Seed, before the Wonders of God appear; as may be seen in all the Prophets, who prophesied of the Treader upon the Serpent.

(2) O Serpent Abur! Thou sayest this day, “The Block of Execution is furnished with what thou knowest,” and thou art come to soil the Mighty One

(2) As unto those who are too reverential, Speaking in presence of superiors, Who drag no living utterance to their teeth, It me befell, that without perfect sound Began I: "My necessity, Madonna, You know, and that which thereunto is good." And she to me: "Of fear and bashfulness Henceforward I will have thee strip thyself, So that thou speak no more as one who dreams. Know that the vessel which the serpent broke Was, and is not; but let him who is guilty Think that God's vengeance does not fear a sop. Without an heir shall not for ever be The Eagle that left his plumes upon the car, Whence it became a monster, then a prey; For verily I see, and hence narrate it, The stars already near to bring the time, From every hindrance safe, and every bar, Within which a Five-hundred, Ten, and Five, One sent from God, shall slay the thievish woman And that same giant who is sinning with her. And peradventure my dark utterance, Like Themis and the Sphinx, may less persuade thee, Since, in their mode, it clouds the intellect;

(7) So also it is very clear and manifest, that before the Curse there grew not such venomous [or poisonous] Thorns and Thistles, and poisonous Fruits; and if God had not cursed the Earth (from the [one] Element) then no Beast should have been so fierce and [mischievous or] evil; for God said, Let the Earth be cursed for thy Sake. From whence now is also arisen the Disobedience of the Beasts towards Man, and their Wildness, [or flying in their Face,] as also, that they are so [cruel,] fierce, [mischievous,] and evil, and that Man must hide himself from their fierce Rage and Fury;] whereas God (in the Creation) gave all into his Power, all Beasts of the Field should be in Subjection under him, which now is quite contrary; for Man is become a Wolf to them [in devouring the Beasts,] and they are [like] Lions against him, and there is mere Eternity against one another; he can scarce order the tame Beasts, much less the wild.

(20) And in one place, Moses writes, "He made the devil a serpent those whom he has in his generation." Also, in the book which is called "Exodus," it is written thus: "He contended against the magicians, when the place was full of serpents according to their wickedness; and the rod which was in the hand of Moses became a serpent, (and) it swallowed the serpents of the magicians."

(2) Many of which [Things] have no Foundation in the Light of Nature, nor can be found [therein,] but were rather invented for Covetousness, and for Filling of the Belly, and for Deceit, upon which the antichristian Kingdom is founded. And from thence is a right Babel of Confusion come to be, out of which then also the [grim,] fierce, cruel Enmity and Hatred is arisen, from whence Babel is broken in herself, and [Enmity] is generated out of a Babel; and it is the fierce Wrath of God which appears in the Breaking [or Destruction] of Babel, because she is generated in the Deceit.

(226) 225 To say: One serpent is encircled by another serpent, 225 when a toothless (?) calf born on pasture-land is encircled. 225 Earth, devour that which has come forth from thee. Monster (beast), lie down, glide away. 226 A servant (holy person) who belongs to the Ennead (pelican) is fallen in water. 226 Serpent, turn over that R` may see thee.

(37) Neither has man brought the malignity, poison and venom into the beasts, birds, worms, and stones, for he had not their body; otherwise if he had brought malignity and fierceness or wrath into all creatures, then he, like the devils, could never obtain God's mercy.

(3) There is a serpent on the brow of that hill, five hundred cubits in length, three cubits of his forepart are pierced with swords

(47) And here the Virgin turned her to the Heart of God, and said; My Heart and my Beloved, thou art my Virtue, from thee I am clear and bright, from thy Root I am generated from Eternity; deliver me from the Worm of Darkness which infects, [poisons,] and tempts my Bridegroom, and let me not be darkened in the Obscurity; I am thy Ornament, and am come that thou shouldst have Joy in me: Wherefore then shall I stand with my Bridegroom in the Dark? And the divine Answer said; The Seed of the Woman shall break the Head of the Serpent, or Worm.

(6) "And you, increase ye and multiply upon the earth, and become many upon it, and be a blessing upon it. The fear of you and the dread of you I shall inspire in everything that is on earth and in the sea.

(1) At the conclusion of his words, the thief Lifted his hands aloft with both the figs, Crying: "Take that, God, for at thee I aim them." From that time forth the serpents were my friends; For one entwined itself about his neck As if it said: "I will not thou speak more;" And round his arms another, and rebound him, Clinching itself together so in front, That with them he could not a motion make. Pistoia, ah, Pistoia! why resolve not To burn thyself to ashes and so perish, Since in ill-doing thou thy seed excellest? Through all the sombre circles of this Hell, Spirit I saw not against God so proud, Not he who fell at Thebes down from the walls! He fled away, and spake no further word; And I beheld a Centaur full of rage Come crying out: "Where is, where is the scoffer?" I do not think Maremma has so many Serpents as he had all along his back, As far as where our countenance begins. Upon the shoulders, just behind the nape, With wings wide open was a dragon lying, And he sets fire to all that he encounters.

(46) "I," the serpent answers, "am Satan who was stoned; I am the Adversary--the Lord who is against you, the one who pleads for your destruction before the Eternal Tribunal. I was your enemy upon the day that you were formed; I have led you into temptation; I have delivered you into the hands of evil; I have maligned you; I have striven ever to achieve your undoing. I am the guardian of the Tree of Knowledge and I have sworn that none whom I can lead astray shall partake of its fruits."

(24) From a staff he produces a serpent; and by means of a staff he sends forth a torrent of water.

(28) If thy Maker in thee does not make the Image of God, but the Image of the Serpent, how wilt thou then bring thy Beast into the Kingdom of Heaven? Dost thou suppose that God has Adders and Serpents in the broken Gate of the Regeneration in the pleasant Habitation? Or dost thou suppose that he looks after thy Hypocrisy, that thou buildest great Houses of Stone for him, and therein dost exercise thy Hypocrisy and Pomp? What cares he for thy Songs and roaring Noise, if thy Heart be a Murderer and Devourer? He will have a new-born Man, who yields himself up to him in Righteousness, and in the Fear of God; him, the Treader upon the Serpent takes into his Arms, and makes him an heavenly Image; such a one is a Child of Heaven, and not thy Fox.

(81) Hence taketh its original that the devil is called [Rev. xii. 9] the old serpent; and also, that there are adders and serpents in this corrupted world, moreover, all manner of vermin or venomous broods of worms, toads, flies, lice and fleas, and all such like things whatsoever; and from hence also tempestuous weather of lightning, thundering, flashing, and hailstones take their original in this world. Observe:

(12) Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

(3) But now that the Wrath devours all, and wholly darkens the Mysteria, [Mysteries or hidden Secrets,] and makes the Source [or Quality] of the eternal Birth [to be] a Darkness, only that it may exalt its Wrath, and sees nothing in the Birth of Eternity, but brings all Things that are therein to nothing; that is a very great Babel, for it not only devours itself, but makes itself stark blind in Nature; and it makes of Man's Image mere evil wolfish Beasts, which think that they are gone out from Babel, and yet are begotten in Babel, and are in the Body of the evil devouring Beast, and so devour the House of their Mother, and manifest it to be a vile stinking Lake; and yet themselves will not go out from it, and it is altogether a Kingdom, which continually generates itself, in its own Voluptuousness and Pride, and also continually manifests its own Shame, and devours itself in the Wrath of its own Sins, and is rightly called Babel.