But while Adam was in hiding, God spoke to the spirit that was concealed in the serpent: “Through pride and evil intent thou didst raise the first rebellion, there being none to ensnare thee, only thine own pride and envy; wherefore Mine anger rages against thee without mercy, and thou has forfeited eternal happiness and all hope of returning to it. Thou hast now a second time stirred My heart to anger because of the sin that has just been committed. Adam will have to suffer punishment for his transgression, but he shall still have hope of return and mercy, because he came into My wrath on account of thy wickedness and seductive guile. And as thou overcamest Adam’s wife while she was yet a virgin, so shall one of her daughters, also a virgin, win a triumph over thee. And just as thou seemest now to have led Adam with all his possessions and kinship as spoils into thy dominion, so shall one of his sons search all thy garners and carry all thy treasures away as spoils; and leading forth Adam and all his faithful kinsmen out of thy power in a glorious triumph, he shall appoint him to an honored place among his sons in the kingdom which thou wert fittingly deprived of. And as a green tree bore the fruit through which thou hast now won thy victory, so shall a dry tree bear the fruit through which thy victory shall be brought to naught.” Then God spoke to the serpent in which the spirit had concealed himself: “Cursed art thou before all the beasts upon earth; because thou hast received Mine enemy and concealed him from the eyes of Eve to the end that, hidden in thee, he might win a victory over mankind. Therefore shalt thou lose the likeness to a maiden’s face which thy countenance has borne and shalt henceforth bear a grim and ugly face hateful to mankind; thou shalt lose the feet that bore thy body upright and henceforth crawl upon breast and belly. Bitter and unclean dust shall be thy food, because thou atest of the apple which thou tookest from the hand of Eve. Thou shalt be a self-chosen vessel of venom and death as evidence that thou didst hide venomous envy in thy body. I declare the covenant sundered between thee and all mankind; thy head and neck shall be crushed under the heel and the tread of men in revenge for the treachery which mankind has suffered through thy slippery cunning. And since thou didst cause man to break the law with his mouth and in eating, the spittle that comes forth from the mouth of a fasting man shall prove as dangerous a venom to thy life, if thou taste it, as thy venom is to man, if he taste it.”