And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
All Commentaries on Genesis 3:15 Go To Genesis 3
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
God judged that evil was to be held in check for a time rather than to be destroyed, so that he says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and the seed of the woman. She shall watch for your head and you for her heel.” Where enmities remain, there remains discord and the desire to do harm. Where there is the desire to do harm, there evil is established. Therefore there is discord between the serpent and the woman. Evil is at the base of discord; thus evil has not been taken away. Indeed, it has been reserved for the serpent, that he might watch for the woman’s heel and the heel of her seed, so as to do harm and infuse his poison. Therefore let us not walk in earthly things, and the serpent will not be able to harm us. Let us put on sandals of the gospel that shut out the serpent’s poison and blunt his bites that we may be provided with covering on our feet by the gospel.
