242. Verse 14 And Jehovah God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you, more than every beast, and more than every wild animal of the field; on your belly you will go, and dust will you eat all the days of your life.

'Jehovah God said to the serpent' means they perceived that their sensory-mindedness was the cause. 'The serpent was cursed, more than every beast and wild animal of the field' means that the sensory part turned away from the heavenly and towards the bodily, and in so doing brought a curse upon itself. 'Beast' and 'wild animal of the field' here, as previously, mean affections. 'The serpent going on its belly' means that the sensory part was no longer able to look up to heavenly things, only downwards to bodily and earthly things. 'It was to eat dust all the days of its life' means that the sensory part had become such as could live from nothing but the bodily and earthly, and so had become hellish.