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Sunday, July 27th, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Christian Standard Bible ®

Jeremiah 8:17

Indeed, I am about to send snakes among you,poisonous vipers that cannot be charmed.They will bite you.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Animals;   Backsliders;   Charmers and Charming;   Church;   Cockatrice;   Impenitence;   Serpent;   War;   Thompson Chain Reference - Cockatrice;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Serpents;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Asp;   Charmers;   Cockatrice;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Adder;   Basilisk;   Charmer;   Cockatrice;   Enchantments;   Serpent;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Adder;   Serpent Charming;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Charm;   Cockatrice;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Magic, Divination, and Sorcery;   Medicine;   Serpent;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Adder;   Charmer;   Cockatrice;   Serpent;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Adder;   Serpent;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Ad'der;   Serpent;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Adder;   Cockatrice;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Basilisk;   Cockatrice;   Enchantment;   Magic;   Serpent;   Serpent-Charming;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Basilisk;   Serpent;   Witchcraft;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, says the LORD.
King James Version
For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord .
English Standard Version
For behold, I am sending among you serpents, adders that cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you," declares the Lord .
New American Standard Bible
"For behold, I am sending serpents among you, Vipers for which there is no charm; And they will bite you," declares the LORD.
New Century Version
"Look! I am sending poisonous snakes to attack you. These snakes cannot be charmed, and they will bite you," says the Lord .
Amplified Bible
"For behold, I am sending serpents among you, Vipers which cannot be charmed, And they will bite you," says the LORD.
World English Bible
For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, says Yahweh.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For beholde, I will sende serpents, and cockatrices among you, which will not be charmed, and they shal sting you, sayth the Lord.
Legacy Standard Bible
"For behold, I am sending serpents against you,Vipers, for which there is no charm,And they will bite you," declares Yahweh.
Berean Standard Bible
"For behold, I will send snakes among you, poisonous vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you," declares the LORD.
Contemporary English Version
"Watch out!" the Lord says. "I'm sending poisonous snakes to attack you, and no one can stop them."
Complete Jewish Bible
"Yes, now I am sending snakes among you, vipers that no one can charm, and they will bite you," says Adonai .
Darby Translation
For behold, I send among you serpents, vipers against which there is no charm, and they shall bite you, saith Jehovah.
Easy-to-Read Version
"People of Judah, I am sending poisonous snakes to attack you. These snakes cannot be controlled. They will bite you." This message is from the Lord .
George Lamsa Translation
For, behold, I will send ferocious serpents among you, which cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you, says the LORD.
Good News Translation
"Watch out!" the Lord says, "I am sending snakes among you, poisonous snakes that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you."
Lexham English Bible
For look, I am letting loose among you snakes, adders for which there is no incantation, and they will bite you," declares Yahweh.
Literal Translation
For behold, I will send serpents among you, vipers for which there is no charm; and they will bite you, says Jehovah.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Morouer, I will sende Cockatrices & serpetes amonge you (which will not be charmed) and they shal byte you, sayeth the LORDE.
American Standard Version
For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, saith Jehovah.
Bible in Basic English
See, I will send snakes and poison-snakes among you, against which the wonder-worker has no power; and they will give you wounds which may not be made well, says the Lord.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For, behold, I will send serpents, basilisks, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.
King James Version (1611)
For behold, I wil send serpents, cockatrices among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you; saith the Lord.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Moreouer, I wyll sende cockatrices and serpentes among you (whiche wyl not be charmed) and they shall bite you, saith the Lorde.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For, behold, I send forth against you deadly serpents, which cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you
English Revised Version
For, behold, I will send serpents, basilisks, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For lo! Y schal sende to you the werste serpentis, to whiche is no charmyng; and thei schulen bite you, seith the Lord.
Update Bible Version
For, look, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, says Yahweh.
Webster's Bible Translation
For behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which [will] not [be] charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.
New English Translation
The Lord says, "Yes indeed, I am sending an enemy against you that will be like poisonous snakes which cannot be charmed away. And they will inflict fatal wounds on you."
New King James Version
"For behold, I will send serpents among you, Vipers which cannot be charmed, And they shall bite you," says the LORD.
New Living Translation
I will send these enemy troops among you like poisonous snakes you cannot charm. They will bite you, and you will die. I, the Lord , have spoken!"
New Life Bible
"For see, I am sending the worst of snakes against you, poison snakes which cannot be stopped. And they will bite you," says the Lord.
New Revised Standard
See, I am letting snakes loose among you, adders that cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you, says the Lord .
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For behold me! sending among you serpents - vipers which there is no charming, - And they shall fatally bite you declareth Yahweh.
Douay-Rheims Bible
For behold I will send among you serpents, basilisks, against which there is no charm: and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.
Revised Standard Version
For behold, I am sending among you serpents, adders which cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you," says the LORD.
Young's Literal Translation
For, lo, I am sending among you serpents, Vipers that have no charmer, And they have bitten you, an affirmation of Jehovah.
THE MESSAGE
"‘What's more, I'm dispatching poisonous snakes among you, Snakes that can't be charmed, snakes that will bite you and kill you.'" God 's Decree!
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"For behold, I am sending serpents against you, Adders, for which there is no charm, And they will bite you," declares the LORD.

Contextual Overview

13I will gather them and bring them to an end. 14Why are we just sitting here?Gather together; let us enter the fortified citiesand perish there,for the Lord our God has destroyed us.He has given us poisoned water to drink,because we have sinned against the Lord. 15We hoped for peace, but there was nothing good;for a time of healing, but there was only terror. 16From Dan, the snorting of horses is heard.At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds,the whole land quakes.They come to devour the land and everything in it,the city and all its residents. 17Indeed, I am about to send snakes among you,poisonous vipers that cannot be charmed.They will bite you.18My joy has flown away;grief has settled on me.My heart is sick. 19Listen—the cry of my dear peoplefrom a faraway land,“Is the Lord no longer in Zion,her King not within her?”Why have they angered mewith their carved images,with their worthless foreign idols? 20Harvest has passed, summer has ended,but we have not been saved. 21I am broken by the brokennessof my dear people.I mourn; horror has taken hold of me. 22Is there no balm in Gilead?Is there no physician there?So why has the healing of my dear peoplenot come about?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I will: Deuteronomy 32:24, Isaiah 14:29, Amos 5:19, Amos 9:3, Revelation 9:19

which: Psalms 58:4, Psalms 58:5, Ecclesiastes 10:11

Reciprocal: Numbers 21:6 - General Proverbs 23:32 - biteth Jeremiah 8:4 - Moreover Ezekiel 9:2 - six Habakkuk 2:7 - bite

Cross-References

Genesis 1:22
God blessed them: “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
Genesis 1:28
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”
Genesis 8:13
In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water that had covered the earth was dried up. Then Noah removed the ark’s cover and saw that the surface of the ground was drying.
Genesis 8:14
By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was dry.
Genesis 8:15
Then God spoke to Noah,
Genesis 9:1
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
Genesis 9:7
But you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out over the earth and multiply on it.”
Psalms 107:38
He blesses them, and they multiply greatly;he does not let their livestock decrease.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you,.... The Chaldeans, comparable to these noxious and hurtful creatures, because of the mischief they should do unto them. The Targum is,

"for, lo, I will raise up against you people that kill as the destroying serpents.''

These were raised up by the Lord, and sent by him, just as he sent fiery serpents among the Israelites in the wilderness, when they sinned against him; there literally, here metaphorically.

Which will not be charmed: Jarchi says, at the end of seventy years a serpent becomes a cockatrice, and stops its ear, that it will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, according to Psalms 58:4, the meaning is, that these Chaldeans would not be diverted from their purposes in destroying of the Jews by any arts or methods whatever; as not by force of arms, so not by good words and entreaties, or any way that could be devised.

And they shall bite you, saith the Lord; that is, kill them, as the Targum interprets it; for the bite of a serpent is deadly.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I will send - Or, am sending. No prophet changes his metaphors so suddenly as Jeremiah. The invading army is now compared to snakes, whom no charming can soothe, and whose bite is fatal. Compare Numbers 21:5-6.

Cockatrices - “Vipers.” See Isaiah 11:8 note.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 8:17. I will send serpents — These were symbols of the enemies that were coming against them; a foe that would rather slay them and destroy the land than get booty and ransom.


 
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