He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.
Read Chapter 20
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Head. Hebrew, "venom. "Septuagint, "the wrath of dragons. "(Calmet)
Vipers. The same Hebrew term is elsewhere rendered basilisk, or asp. The precise import of such things is not easily ascertained. (Pineda)
Tongue. The ancients thought that serpents communicated the venom by the tongue, or sting. Moderns think they do it rather by the teeth. (Calmet)
19. The ‘asp’ is a small serpent, but the ‘viper’ hath more length of body. And asps produce eggs, and their young are hatched from the eggs. But when vipers have conceived, their ‘young ravin in their womb, which bursting the parents’ sides issue out of their bellies. Hence too it is called the ‘viper,’ because it is a ‘parent [vi parit.] by violence.’ Thus the viper is so produced that it comes forth by violence, and is brought into the world by the killing of the mother. What then is represented by the little asps, saving the hidden suggestions of impure spirits, who steal upon [Ben. ‘surripiunt,’ Steal from, both others ‘surrepunt.’] the hearts of men by slight prompting at first, and what by the ‘viper’s tongue’ save the violent temptation of the devil? For at first he steals upon them gently, but afterwards he drags them even by force. And so he ‘sucks the poison of asps,’ in that the little beginning of secret suggestion is first produced in the heart, but ‘the viper’s t...
