Lectionary Calendar
Monday, May 19th, 2025
the Fifth Week after Easter
Attention!
For 10¢ a day you can enjoy StudyLight.org ads
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

Myles Coverdale Bible

Ecclesiastes 10:11

A babler of his tonge is no better, then a serpent that styngeth without hyssynge.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Fool;   Serpent;   Slander;   Speaking;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Serpents;   Slander;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Charmers;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Snake;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Charmer;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Adder;   Serpent;   Serpent Charming;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Charm;   Poetry;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Ecclesiastes;   Magic, Divination, and Sorcery;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Babbler;   Serpent;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Enchantments;   Serpent;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Amulet;   Babbler;   Enchantment;   Magic;   Serpent;   Serpent-Charming;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Calumny;   Providence;   Serpent;   Witchcraft;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for August 18;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
If the snake bites before it is charmed,then there is no advantage for the charmer.
Hebrew Names Version
If the snake bites before it is charmed, then is there no profit for the charmer's tongue.
King James Version
Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.
English Standard Version
If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer.
New American Standard Bible
If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no benefit for the charmer.
New Century Version
If a snake bites the tamer before it is tamed, what good is the tamer?
Amplified Bible
If the serpent bites before being charmed, then there is no profit for the charmer.
World English Bible
If the snake bites before it is charmed, then is there no profit for the charmer's tongue.
Geneva Bible (1587)
If the serpent bite, when he is not charmed: no better is a babbler.
Legacy Standard Bible
If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no advantage for the charmer.
Berean Standard Bible
If the snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.
Contemporary English Version
The power to charm a snake does you no good if it bites you anyway.
Complete Jewish Bible
If a snake bites before it is charmed, the snake-charmer has no advantage.
Darby Translation
If the serpent bite before enchantment, then the charmer hath no advantage.
Easy-to-Read Version
Someone might know how to control snakes. But that skill is useless if a snake bites when that person is not around.
George Lamsa Translation
If the serpent bites without being charmed; then in vain is a charmer.
Good News Translation
Knowing how to charm a snake is of no use if you let the snake bite first.
Lexham English Bible
If the snake bites before the charming, the snake charmer will not succeed.
Literal Translation
If the snake will bite without charming, then there is no advantage to a master of tongue.
American Standard Version
If the serpent bite before it is charmed, then is there no advantage in the charmer.
Bible in Basic English
If a snake gives a bite before the word of power is said, then there is no longer any use in the word of power.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
If the serpent bite before it is charmed, then the charmer hath no advantage.
King James Version (1611)
Surely the serpent will bite without inchauntment, and a babbler is no better.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
A backbiter is no better then a serpent that stingeth without hissing.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
If a serpent bite when there is no charmer’s whisper, then there is no advantage to the charmer.
English Revised Version
If the serpent bite before it be charmed, then is there no advantage in the charmer.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If a serpent bitith, it bitith in silence; he that bacbitith priueli, hath no thing lesse than it.
Update Bible Version
If the serpent bites before it is charmed, then is there no advantage to the master of the tongue.
Webster's Bible Translation
Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.
New English Translation
If the snake should bite before it is charmed, the snake charmer is in trouble.
New King James Version
A serpent may bite when it is not charmed; The babbler is no different.
New Living Translation
If a snake bites before you charm it, what's the use of being a snake charmer?
New Life Bible
If the snake bites before it is put under a man's power, it will not be of help to the man who would have power over it.
New Revised Standard
If the snake bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage in a charmer.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If a serpent will bite, unless he is charmed, then there is nothing better for him that owneth a tongue.
Douay-Rheims Bible
If a serpent bite in silence, he is nothing better that backbiteth secretly.
Revised Standard Version
If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage in a charmer.
Young's Literal Translation
If the serpent biteth without enchantment, Then there is no advantage to a master of the tongue.
THE MESSAGE
If the snake bites before it's been charmed, What's the point in then sending for the charmer?
New American Standard Bible (1995)
If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.

Contextual Overview

4 Yf a principall sprete be geue the to beare rule, be not negliget the in thine office: for so shal greate wickednesse be put downe, as it were wt a medecyne. 5 Another plage is there, which I haue sene vnder the Sonne: namely, ye ignoraunce yt is comonly amonge prynces: 6 in yt a foole sytteth in greate dignite, & the rich are sett downe beneth: 7 I se seruauntes ryde vpon horses, & prynces goinge vpon their fete as it were seruauntes. 8 But he yt dyggeth vp a pytt, shall fall therin himself: & who so breaketh downe the hedge, a serpent shal byte him. 9 Who so remoueth stones, shall haue trauayle withall: and he that heweth wod, shalbe hurt therwith. 10 When an yron is blont, and ye poynt not sharpened, it must be whett againe, and that with might: Euen so doth wi?dome folowe diligence. 11 A babler of his tonge is no better, then a serpent that styngeth without hyssynge.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the serpent: Psalms 58:4, Psalms 58:5, Jeremiah 8:17

a babbler: Heb. the master of the tongue, Psalms 52:2, Psalms 64:3, Proverbs 18:21, James 3:6

Reciprocal: Proverbs 18:7 - his destruction James 3:8 - full

Cross-References

Genesis 10:1
This is the generacion of the childre of Noe, Sem, Ham, and Iaphet, & they begat children after the floude.
Genesis 10:10
And the origenall of his kyngdome was Babel, Erech, Acad & Chalne in ye londe of Synear.
Numbers 24:22
neuertheles thou shalt be a burninge vnto Kain, tyll Assur take ye presoner.
Numbers 24:24
And shippes out of Citim shall subdue Assur and Eber. He himself also shal perishe vtterly.
2 Kings 19:36
So Sennacherib the kinge of Assyria brake vp, and departed, and returned, and abode at Niniue.
Ezra 4:2
they came to Zorobabel & to the pryncipall fathers, and sayde vnto them: We wyl buylde with you: for we seke the LORDE youre God like as ye do. And we haue done sacrifice vnto him, sence the tyme that Assar Hadon the kynge of Assur broughte vs vp hither.
Psalms 83:8
Assur also is ioyned vnto the & helpe the children of Loth.
Isaiah 37:37
So Sennacherib the kinge of the Assirians brake vp, and dwelt at Niniue.
Ezekiel 27:23
Haran, Chene and Eden, the marchauntes off Saba, Assiria and Chelmad, were all doers with ye
Ezekiel 32:22
Assur is there also with his company, ad their graues rounde aboute, which were slayne ad fell all with the swearde,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment,.... See Jeremiah 8:17. Or rather, "without a whisper" t; without hissing, or any noise, giving no warning at all: so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "in silence"; some serpents bite, others sting, some both; see

Proverbs 23:32; some hiss, others not, as here;

and a babbler is no better; a whisperer, a backbiter, a busy tattling body, that goes from house to house, and, in a private manner, speaks evil of civil governments, of ministers of the word, and of other persons; and; in a secret way, defames men, and detracts from their characters: such an one is like a venomous viper, a poisonous serpent or adder; and there is no more guarding against him than against such a creature that bites secretly.

t בלא לחש "absque susurro", Pagniuus; "absque sibilo", Tigurine version.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Rather: “If a serpent without enchantment (i. e., not being enchanted) bites, then there is no advantage to the charmer”: i. e., if the charmer is unwisely slack in exercising his craft, he will be bitten like other people. See Psalms 58:4 note.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ecclesiastes 10:11. The serpent will bite without enchantment — בלא לחש belo lachash, without hissing. As a snake may bite before it hiss, so also will the babbler, talkative person, or calumniator. Without directly speaking evil, he insinuates, by innuendoes, things injurious to the reputation of his neighbour. Gif the eddir bite in silence, noyhing lasse than he hath that privily backbiteth. - Old MS. Bible. "A babbler of his tongue is no better than a serpent that styngeth without hyssynge." - COVERDALE. The moral of this saying is simply this: A calumniator is as dangerous as a poisonous serpent; and from the envenomed tongue of slander and detraction no man is safe. The comparing the serpent, נחש nachash, to a babbler, has something singular in it. I have already supposed that the creature mentioned, Genesis 3:1, was of the genus simia. This has been ridiculed, but not disproved.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile