Gen 3:14: "cursed are you … on your belly … dust"

Says God says to the serpent אָרוּר אַתָּה, "cursed are you," a Qal passive participle (OSHB) of the verb BDB glosses "curse," מִכָּל־הַבְּהֵמָה, "above (or from among) all the livestock," and every beast of the field. עַל־גְּחֹנְךָ תֵלֵךְ, "on your belly you will go" (BDB "belly, of reptiles"), וְעָפָר תֹּאכַל, "and dust you will eat," all the days of your life. Only the serpent and the ground (3:17) are called cursed in Gen 3; the man and the woman are not. Dust-eating is said of humbled enemies: Mic 7:17, יְלַחֲכוּ עָפָר כַּנָּחָשׁ ("They will lick the dust like a snake," BSB), and Ps 72:9, וְאֹיְבָיו עָפָר יְלַחֵכוּ. Isa 65:25 returns to it: וְנָחָשׁ עָפָר לַחְמוֹ ("but the food of the serpent will be dust"). In 3:14 Swete adds ἐπὶ τῷ στήθει σου καὶ before τῇ κοιλίᾳ πορεύσῃ.

Uncertain Whether the preposition sets the serpent "above" the animals in its curse or marks it out "from among" them, and whether the serpent had another form before; the text does not say. No lean is taken here.