Why the Serpent Was Cursed Above Every Beast in Eden

"Cursed are you." And why was "cursed" not said of the man and his wife, just as He cursed the serpent? Because He had already blessed them, as it is said, "And God blessed them" (Genesis 1:28). "From every beast and from every animal of the field." If from the animal of the field, which is free and not in his domain, the serpent was cursed, all the more so (a fortiori) that it was cursed more than every domestic beast. He said to him: when they were cursed, [the serpent was cursed] above the domestic beast and the wild animal sevenfold. And what are they? The donkey more than the cat, for the cat bears its young in its womb fifty-two days, and the donkey three hundred sixty-five [days], and a human being nine months; and the serpent was cursed more than the donkey sevenfold, for the donkey [carries its young] a year, while the serpent carries its young in its belly for seven years. "Upon your belly you shall go." From here they said that it used to walk upright, and the angels came down and cut off its legs. "And dust you shall eat all the days of your life." For it used to eat all the delicacies of the world; and once it caused Eve to sin, it was decreed upon it that it would eat dust all the days of its life, so that even if it eats the delicacies of the world, its mind is not settled upon it until it eats dust.