For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, with heads, and with them they do hurt.
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Bede
AD 735
serpents: For the false teachers of the old serpent who deceived man, like those who are supported by the protection of princes, hurt more than if they persuaded by words alone. "He sitteth," he says, "lying in wait with the rich." <a
tails: That is, in the their speech and office. For "the prophet that teacheth a lie, he is the tail," for he conceals a part which is in a manner hidden and unclean by the volubility of a flattering tongue, saying to the ungodly, "Thou art good."
For the power of the horses. The power of the imagined horses or real cannon, lying in their mouths and in their tails, signifies that the mischievous power of the cannon is directed to the object by their mouths, but takes its birth in the tail or breech of the cannon, where the charge is lodged: whence the cannon's breech is here compared to the serpent's head, which contains its venom. (Pastorini, hic.)
