Ulangan 32:33

32:33 Their wine is snakes’ poison,

the deadly venom of cobras.

Ayub 20:16

20:16 He sucks the poison ¹  of serpents; ² 

the fangs ³  of a viper ⁴  kill him.

Mazmur 58:5

58:5 that does not respond to ⁵  the magicians,

or to a skilled snake-charmer.

Yeremia 8:17

8:17 The Lord says, ⁶ 

“Yes indeed, ⁷  I am sending an enemy against you

that will be like poisonous snakes which cannot be charmed away. ⁸ 

And they will inflict fatal wounds on you.” ⁹ 

Amos 5:18-19

The Lord Demands Justice

5:18 Woe ¹⁰  to those who wish for the day of the Lord!

Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come?

It will bring darkness, not light.

5:19 Disaster will be inescapable, ¹¹ 

as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear,

then escaped ¹²  into a house,

leaned his hand against the wall,

and was bitten by a poisonous snake.

Mikha 7:17

7:17 They will lick the dust like a snake,

like serpents crawling on the ground. ¹³ 

They will come trembling from their strongholds

to the Lord our God; ¹⁴ 

they will be terrified ¹⁵  of you. ¹⁶ 

[20:16]  ¹ tn The word is a homonym for the word for “head,” which has led to some confusion in the early versions.

[20:16]  ² sn To take the possessions of another person is hereby compared to sucking poison from a serpent – it will kill eventually.

[20:16]  ³ tn Heb “tongue.”

[20:16]  ⁴ tn Some have thought this verse is a gloss on v. 14 and should be deleted. But the word for “viper” (אֶפְעֶה, ’ef’eh) is a rare word, occurring only here and in Isa 30:6 and 59:5. It is unlikely that a rarer word would be used in a gloss. But the point is similar to v. 14 – the wealth that was greedily sucked in by the wicked proves to be their undoing. Either this is totally irrelevant to Job’s case, a general discussion, or the man is raising questions about how Job got his wealth.

[58:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “does not listen to the voice of.”

[8:17]  ⁶ tn These words which are at the end of the Hebrew verse are brought forward to show at the outset the shift in speaker.

[8:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “Indeed [or For] behold!” The translation is intended to convey some of the connection that is suggested by the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) at the beginning of the verse.

[8:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “I am sending against you snakes, poisonous ones which cannot be charmed.” In the light of the context literal snakes are scarcely meant. So the metaphor is turned into a simile to prevent possible confusion. For a similar metaphorical use of animals for enemies see 5:6.

[8:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “they will bite you.” There does not appear to be any way to avoid the possible confusion that literal snakes are meant here except to paraphrase. Possibly one could say “And they will attack you and ‘bite’ you,” but the enclosing of the word “bite” in quotations might lead to even further confusion.

[5:18]  ¹⁰ tn The term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”) was used when mourning the dead (see the note on the word “dead” in 5:16). The prophet here either engages in role playing and mourns the death of the nation in advance or sarcastically taunts those who hold to this misplaced belief.

[5:19]  ¹¹ tn The words “Disaster will be inescapable” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:19]  ¹² tn Heb “went” (so KJV, NRSV).

[7:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “like crawling things on the ground.” The parallelism suggests snakes are in view.

[7:17]  ¹⁴ tn Thetranslationassumesthatthe phrase אֶל־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ (’el-yÿhvah ’elohenu, “to the Lord our God”) goes with what precedes. Another option is to take the phrase with the following verb, in which case one could translate, “to the Lord our God they will turn in dread.”

[7:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they will be in dread and afraid.”

[7:17]  ¹⁶ tn The Lord is addressed directly using the second person.