The poison of serpents and of asps is used in scripture symbolically for the judgement of God and for the malignity inherent in the wicked. Deuteronomy 32:24,33; Job 6:4; Job 20:16; Psalm 58:4; Psalm 140:3; Romans 3:13 . The tongue is "an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." James 3:8 . Job 6:4 apparently alludes to arrows being poisoned.