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New Living Translation

Job 20:16

They will suck the poison of cobras. The viper will kill them.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Asp;   Hypocrisy;   Pleasure;   Serpent;   Sin;   Viper;   Wicked (People);   Worldliness;   Thompson Chain Reference - Animals;   Asps;   Poison;   Reptiles;   Vipers;   The Topic Concordance - Oppression;   Wickedness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Afflictions of the Wicked, the;   Asp, or Adder;   Riches;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Asp;   Viper;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Asp;   Gall;   Hemlock;   Poison;   Viper;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Asp;   Job, the Book of;   Poison;   Venom;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Gall;   Serpent;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Adder;   Asp;   Poison;   Viper,;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Viper;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Gall;   Serpent;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Poison;   Suck;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Asp;   Viper;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Asp;   Gall;   Serpent;   Viper;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
He will suck the poison of cobras;a viper’s fangs will kill him.
Hebrew Names Version
He shall suck cobra venom. The viper's tongue shall kill him.
King James Version
He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.
English Standard Version
He will suck the poison of cobras; the tongue of a viper will kill him.
New Century Version
They will suck the poison of snakes, and the snake's fangs will kill them.
New English Translation
He sucks the poison of serpents; the fangs of a viper kill him.
Amplified Bible
"He sucks the poison of vipers [which ill-gotten wealth contains]; The viper's tongue slays him.
New American Standard Bible
"He sucks the poison of cobras; The viper's tongue kills him.
World English Bible
He shall suck cobra venom. The viper's tongue shall kill him.
Geneva Bible (1587)
He shall sucke the gall of Aspes, and the vipers tongue shall slay him.
Legacy Standard Bible
He sucks the poison of cobras;The viper's tongue kills him.
Berean Standard Bible
He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill him.
Contemporary English Version
They will die from the fangs of poisonous snakes
Complete Jewish Bible
He sucks the poison of asps, the viper's fangs will kill him.
Darby Translation
He shall suck the poison of asps; the viper's tongue shall kill him.
Easy-to-Read Version
What he drank will be like a snake's poison; it will kill him like the bite of a deadly snake.
George Lamsa Translation
He shall suck the poison of asps; the tongue of an adder shall slay him.
Good News Translation
What the evil people swallow is like poison; it kills them like the bite of a deadly snake.
Lexham English Bible
He will suck the poison of horned vipers; the viper's tongue will kill him.
Literal Translation
He shall suck the poison of asps; the viper's tongue shall slay him.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The serpentes heade shall sucke him, and the adders tonge shall slaye him:
American Standard Version
He shall suck the poison of asps: The viper's tongue shall slay him.
Bible in Basic English
He takes the poison of snakes into his mouth, the tongue of the snake is the cause of his death.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
He shall suck the poison of asps; the viper's tongue shall slay him.
King James Version (1611)
He shall sucke the poison of Aspes: the vipers tongue shall slay him.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
He shall sucke the gall of serpentes, and the adders tongue shall slay him:
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And let him suck the poison of serpents, and let the serpent’s tongue slay him.
English Revised Version
He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
He schal souke the heed of snakis; and the tunge of an addre schal sle hym.
Update Bible Version
He shall suck the poison of cobras: The viper's tongue shall slay him.
Webster's Bible Translation
He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.
New King James Version
He will suck the poison of cobras; The viper's tongue will slay him.
New Life Bible
He will drink the poison of snakes. The snake's tongue will kill him.
New Revised Standard
They will suck the poison of asps; the tongue of a viper will kill them.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
The poison of adders, shall he suck, The tongue of the viper shall slay him;
Douay-Rheims Bible
He shall suck the head of asps, and the viper’s tongue shall kill him.
Revised Standard Version
He will suck the poison of asps; the tongue of a viper will kill him.
Young's Literal Translation
Gall of asps he sucketh, Slay him doth the tongue of a viper.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"He sucks the poison of cobras; The viper's tongue slays him.

Contextual Overview

10 Their children will beg from the poor, for they must give back their stolen riches. 11 Though they are young, their bones will lie in the dust. 12 "They enjoyed the sweet taste of wickedness, letting it melt under their tongue. 13 They savored it, holding it long in their mouths. 14 But suddenly the food in their bellies turns sour, a poisonous venom in their stomach. 15 They will vomit the wealth they swallowed. God won't let them keep it down. 16 They will suck the poison of cobras. The viper will kill them. 17 They will never again enjoy streams of olive oil or rivers of milk and honey. 18 They will give back everything they worked for. Their wealth will bring them no joy. 19 For they oppressed the poor and left them destitute. They foreclosed on their homes.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the poison: Romans 3:13

the viper's: Isaiah 30:6, Matthew 3:7, Acts 28:3-6

Reciprocal: Job 20:14 - the gall Psalms 58:4 - the deaf

Cross-References

Genesis 20:3
But that night God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, "You are a dead man, for that woman you have taken is already married!"
Genesis 20:5
Didn't Abraham tell me, ‘She is my sister'? And she herself said, ‘Yes, he is my brother.' I acted in complete innocence! My hands are clean."
Genesis 20:6
In the dream God responded, "Yes, I know you are innocent. That's why I kept you from sinning against me, and why I did not let you touch her.
Genesis 20:8
Abimelech got up early the next morning and quickly called all his servants together. When he told them what had happened, his men were terrified.
Genesis 20:9
Then Abimelech called for Abraham. "What have you done to us?" he demanded. "What crime have I committed that deserves treatment like this, making me and my kingdom guilty of this great sin? No one should ever do what you have done!
Genesis 24:65
"Who is that man walking through the fields to meet us?" she asked the servant. And he replied, "It is my master." So Rebekah covered her face with her veil.
Genesis 26:11
Then Abimelech issued a public proclamation: "Anyone who touches this man or his wife will be put to death!"
Proverbs 12:1
To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction.
Proverbs 25:12
To one who listens, valid criticism is like a gold earring or other gold jewelry.
Proverbs 27:5
An open rebuke is better than hidden love!

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He shall suck the poison of asps,.... Or "the head of asps" u; for their poison lies in their heads, particularly in their "teeth" w; or rather is a liquor in the gums, yellow like oil x; according to Pliny y, in copulation the male puts his head into the mouth of the female, which she sucks and gnaws off through the sweetness of the pleasure, then conceives her young, which eat out her belly; this is to be understood not of the man's sin, then it would have been expressed either in the past or present tense, as if that was sweet unto him in the commission of it, sucked in like milk from the breast, or honey from the honeycomb; such were his contrivances and artful methods, and the success of them in getting riches, but in the issue proved like the poison of asps, pernicious and deadly to him, which caused him to vomit them up again; for poison excites vomiting: but of the punishment of his sin; for putting men to death by the poison of asps was a punishment inflicted by some people upon malefactors; and however, it is certain death, and immediately and quickly dispatches, and without sense; so the wages of sin is death, and there is no avoiding it, and it comes insensibly on carnal men; they are not aware of it, and in no pain about it, until in hell they lift up their eyes as the rich man did:

the viper's tongue shall slay him; though it is with its teeth it bites, yet, when it is about to bite, it puts out its tongue, and to it its poison is sometimes ascribed; though it is said z to be quite harmless, and therefore not to be understood in a literal sense, but figuratively of the tongue of a detractor, a calumniator and false accuser, such an one as Doeg; but cannot be the sense here, since the fall of the person here described would not be by any such means; but the phrase, as before, denotes the certain and immediate death of such a wicked man; for the bite of a viper was always reckoned incurable, and issued in sudden death, see Acts 28:3.

u ראש פתנים "caput aspidum", V. L. Montanus. w Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 37. Aelian. Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 4. x Philosoph. Transact. ut supra. (abridged, vol. 2. p. 819.) y Ib. c. 62. z Scheuchzer, ut supra, (Physic. Sacr. vol. 4.) p. 712.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He shall suck the poison of asps - That which he swallowed as pleasant nutriment, shall become the most deadly poison; or the consequence shall be as if he had sucked the poison of asps. It would seem that the ancients regarded the poison of the serpent as deadly, however, it was taken into the system. They seem not to have been aware that the poison of a wound may be sucked out without injury to him who does it; and that it is necessary that the poison should mingle with the blood to be fatal.

The viper’s tongue shall slay him - The early impression probably was, that the injury done by a serpent was by the fiery, forked, and brandished tongue, which was supposed to be sharp and penetrating. It is now known, that the injury is done by the poison ejected through a groove, or orifice in one of the teeth, which is so made as to lie flat on the roof of the mouth, except when the serpent bites, when that tooth is elevated, and penetrates the flesh. The word “viper” here (אפעה 'eph‛eh), “viper,” is probably the same species of serpent that is known among the Arabs by the same name still - El Effah. See the notes at Isaiah 30:6. It is the most common and venomous of the serpent tribe in Northern Africa and in South-western Asia. It is remarkable for its quick and penetrating poison. It is about two feet long, as thick as a man’s arm, beautifully spotted with yellow and brown, and sprinkled over with blackish specks. They have a large mouth, by which they inhale a large quantity of air, and when inflated therewith, they eject it with such force as to be heard a considerable distance. “Jackson.” Capt. Riley, in his “Authentic Narrative,” (New York, 1817,) confirms this account. He describes the viper as the “most beautiful object in nature,” and says that the poison is so virulent as to cause death in fifteen minutes.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 20:16. He shall suck the poison of asps — That delicious morsel, that secret, easily-besetting sin, so palatable, and so pleasurable, shall act on the life of his soul, as the poison of asps would do on the life of his body.

The poison is called the gall of asps, it being anciently supposed that the poison of serpents consists in their gall, which is thought to be copiously exuded when those animals are enraged; as it has been often seen that their bite is not poisonous when they are not angry. Pliny, in speaking of the various parts of animals, Hist. Nat. lib. xi., c. 37, states, from this circumstance, that in the gall, the poison of serpents consists; ne quis miretur id (fel) venenum esse serpentum. And in lib. xxviii., c. 9, he ranks the gall of horses among the poisons: Damnatur (fel) equinum tantum inter venena. We see, therefore, that the gall was considered to be the source whence the poison of serpents was generated, not only in Arabia, but also in Italy.


 
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