He will suck the poison of cobras; The viper’s tongue will slay 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.
- BSB He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill 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 throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips”;
- Acts 28:3–6But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand.
- Matt 3:7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
- Deut 32:24They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
- Isa 30:6The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people.
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.