Who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and thirsty land, where there was no water; who brought you forth water out of the rock of flint;
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Breath. Hebrew saraphh, or the basilisk, as it is rendered, Isaias xxx. 6. It destroys both the grass and animals, by the burning infection of its breath. (Galen; Pliny, viii. 19. See Numbers xxi. 6. (Tirinus)
Scorpion stings with its tail.
Dips as. A serpent whose bite causes a violent thirst: from whence it has its name; for in Greek, dipsa signifies thirst. (Challoner)
It is impossible to quench this thirst, (Worthington) and those who are bitten by this serpent can discharge no water. (Calmet)
They drink till they burst, unless they can procure some treacle, or remedy against the poison. (Dioscorides) (Tirinus)
Some translate the Hebrew, "scorpions, and (at the place of) drought, where there was no water: he brought", whether Tsommaon be the name of a particular place, (Isaias xxxv. 7.; Onkelos; Calmet) or it may be applied to the greatest part of that desert, where the want of water so often occasioned the murmurs of the people. (Haydock)
