He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill him.
Parallel translations
- WEB He shall suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue shall kill him.
- KJV He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
- NKJV He will suck the poison of cobras; The viper’s tongue will slay him.
- NASB “He sucks the poison of cobras; The viper’s tongue kills him.
- NLT They will suck the poison of cobras. The viper will kill them.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The wicked man sucks cobra venom and is slain by the viper's tongue. His sin proves fatal to him.
Overview
Continuing the poison imagery, Zophar says the wicked man's indulgence is like nursing on snake venom that kills him. The serpent imagery subtly recalls the deceiver behind sin from the garden. It dramatizes the deadliness of cherished evil and the truth that sin, like a serpent's bite, brings death apart from the redemption found in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Rom 3:13“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.”
- Acts 28:3–6Paul gathered a bundle of sticks, and as he laid them on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself to his hand.
- Matt 3:7But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
- Deut 32:24They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.
- Isa 30:6This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 20:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.