No Defense Is Offered for the Inciter

"And the LORD God said to the serpent" (Genesis 3:14). Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: From where do we know that one does not plead on behalf of an inciter? From the primeval serpent. For Rabbi Simlai said: The serpent had many arguments to make, and he did not make them, and why did the Holy One, blessed be He, not make them for him? Because one does not plead on behalf of an inciter. What was there for him to say? "The words of the master and the words of the disciple - whose words does one heed?" [If God said do not eat and the serpent said eat, you should have heeded God.] It was taught: Rabbi says: In matters of honor one begins with the greater, as it is written, "And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar"; and in matters of disgrace one begins with the lesser, for first the serpent was cursed, and afterward Eve, and finally Adam was cursed. All who are addressed turn their face toward the back of the one speaking, except for three, because the Holy One, blessed be He, spoke with them directly. And these are: Adam, the serpent, and the fish. Adam, as it is said, "And to Adam He said" (verse 17); the serpent, "And the LORD God said to the serpent"; the fish, "And the LORD spoke to the fish" (Jonah 2:11). "Because you have done this." All that you did was for this; your every act was not for this. From the beginning of the book until here there are seventy-one mentions of the divine Name, telling that he was judged by a full Sanhedrin.