Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 20:16
He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
16. A slight change of the figure. The meaning is: that which he sucks shall prove the poison of asps.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He shall suck the poison of asps – That which he swallowed as pleasant nutriment, shall become the most deadly poison; or the consequence shall be as if he had sucked the poison of asps. It would seem that the ancients regarded the poison of the serpent as deadly, however, it was taken into the system. They seem not to have been aware that the poison of a wound may be sucked out without injury to him who does it; and that it is necessary that the poison should mingle with the blood to be fatal.
The vipers tongue shall slay him – The early impression probably was, that the injury done by a serpent was by the fiery, forked, and brandished tongue, which was supposed to be sharp and penetrating. It is now known, that the injury is done by the poison ejected through a groove, or orifice in one of the teeth, which is so made as to lie flat on the roof of the mouth, except when the serpent bites, when that tooth is elevated, and penetrates the flesh. The word viper here ( ‘epheh), viper, is probably the same species of serpent that is known among the Arabs by the same name still – El Effah. See the notes at Isa 30:6. It is the most common and venomous of the serpent tribe in Northern Africa and in South-western Asia. It is remarkable for its quick and penetrating poison. It is about two feet long, as thick as a mans arm, beautifully spotted with yellow and brown, and sprinkled over with blackish specks. They have a large mouth, by which they inhale a large quantity of air, and when inflated therewith, they eject it with such force as to be heard a considerable distance. Jackson. Capt. Riley, in his Authentic Narrative, (New York, 1817,) confirms this account. He describes the viper as the most beautiful object in nature, and says that the poison is so virulent as to cause death in fifteen minutes.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 16. He shall suck the poison of asps] That delicious morsel, that secret, easily-besetting sin, so palatable, and so pleasurable, shall act on the life of his soul, as the poison of asps would do on the life of his body.
The poison is called the gall of asps, it being anciently supposed that the poison of serpents consists in their gall, which is thought to be copiously exuded when those animals are enraged; as it has been often seen that their bite is not poisonous when they are not angry. Pliny, in speaking of the various parts of animals, Hist. Nat. lib. xi., c. 37, states, from this circumstance, that in the gall, the poison of serpents consists; ne quis miretur id (fel) venenum esse serpentum. And in lib. xxviii., c. 9, he ranks the gall of horses among the poisons: Damnatur (fel) equinum tantum inter venena. We see, therefore, that the gall was considered to be the source whence the poison of serpents was generated, not only in Arabia, but also in Italy.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That which he hath greedily and industriously sucked in as pleasant and wholesome nourishment, shall in the issue be as ungrateful and destructive to him as the
poison or head (for the Hebrew word signifies both, and the poison lies in the head)
of asps would be to one that sucketh it. The vipers tongue, together with its teeth, in which the poison lurks, which it conveys by biting a man.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. shall suckIt shall turnout that he has sucked the poison, &c.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He shall suck the poison of asps,…. Or “the head of asps” u; for their poison lies in their heads, particularly in their “teeth” w; or rather is a liquor in the gums, yellow like oil x; according to Pliny y, in copulation the male puts his head into the mouth of the female, which she sucks and gnaws off through the sweetness of the pleasure, then conceives her young, which eat out her belly; this is to be understood not of the man’s sin, then it would have been expressed either in the past or present tense, as if that was sweet unto him in the commission of it, sucked in like milk from the breast, or honey from the honeycomb; such were his contrivances and artful methods, and the success of them in getting riches, but in the issue proved like the poison of asps, pernicious and deadly to him, which caused him to vomit them up again; for poison excites vomiting: but of the punishment of his sin; for putting men to death by the poison of asps was a punishment inflicted by some people upon malefactors; and however, it is certain death, and immediately and quickly dispatches, and without sense; so the wages of sin is death, and there is no avoiding it, and it comes insensibly on carnal men; they are not aware of it, and in no pain about it, until in hell they lift up their eyes as the rich man did:
the viper’s tongue shall slay him; though it is with its teeth it bites, yet, when it is about to bite, it puts out its tongue, and to it its poison is sometimes ascribed; though it is said z to be quite harmless, and therefore not to be understood in a literal sense, but figuratively of the tongue of a detractor, a calumniator and false accuser, such an one as Doeg; but cannot be the sense here, since the fall of the person here described would not be by any such means; but the phrase, as before, denotes the certain and immediate death of such a wicked man; for the bite of a viper was always reckoned incurable, and issued in sudden death, see Ac 28:3.
u “caput aspidum”, V. L. Montanus. w Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 37. Aelian. Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 4. x Philosoph. Transact. ut supra. (abridged, vol. 2. p. 819.) y Ib. c. 62. z Scheuchzer, ut supra, (Physic. Sacr. vol. 4.) p. 712.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
16. The viper Eph’ha. Tristram ( Nat. Hist.) identifies it with the sand-viper, a species of small size, about a foot long, varying in colour and common in Arabia and Syria. He frequently found it in winter under stones by the shores of the Dead Sea. It is very rapid and active in its movements. Though highly poisonous, it is not so much dreaded as the fatal cobra or cerastes.
The viper’s tongue “Though biting with his teeth the viper appears to bite with the tongue, for it bites with tongue extended.” Hengstenberg. Not unlike the bite of the serpent, sin brings at once suffering and incipient death. Thus Plato corrects the saying of Hesiod, “that punishment closely follows sin;” it being, as he says, born at the same time with it. Whoever expects punishment already suffers it. Whoever has deserved it, expects it. (SENECA, Epis., 105.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 20:16 He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
Ver. 16. He shall suck the poison of asps ] That lieth in his head, whence also it hath its name in the original. See Trapp on “ Job 20:14 “ Caput aspidis suger, saith the Vulgate. It is said of the toad that he hath in his head a stone of great virtue, called Bufonites. But the asp hath nothing in his head but strong poison. This the rich wretch shall suck, like as he was wont to suck the blood of the poor oppressed, to eat their flesh, Psa 14:4 , and to eviscerate them.
The viper’s tongue shall slay him] Perinde cedet ei maleficium, saith Junius; his wickedness shall prove his bane, unless he presently take the antidote of repentance, whereby to expel the poison ere it get to the vitals. Repentance is the soul’s best vomit, the hardest, but wholesomest medicine. It is repentance unto life; whereas the sins of the impenitent are mortal, saith St John 1Jn 5:17 , or rather immortal, as saith St Paul, Rom 2:5 . The hand that is here and elsewhere lifted up in threatening, Isa 26:11 , will fall down in punishing. “The wages of sin is death.” When the barbarians saw the viper hanging on St Paul’s hand, they looked when he would fall down dead, Act 28:4 ; Act 28:6 . The devil’s design was there to have slain Paul, but he was defeated. And Brentius holdeth that the metaphor here used is taken not so much from serpents, whose venom lieth in their tongues, as from Satan, who, by the serpent in Paradise, cast our first parents into all kind of evils. Another there is who thus explains this text, Caput viperis suget. When vipers engender, the female sucketh the head of the male, and biteth it off with great delight; then she conceiveth her young ones, which eat out her belly. So the oppressor, getting the poor man’s goods, they seem sweet unto him, but at the last his sin findeth him out, for it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder, as Solomon saith of drunkenness (which Austin calleth dulce venenum, a sweet poison), Pro 23:32 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the poison: Rom 3:13
the viper’s: Isa 30:6, Mat 3:7, Act 28:3-6
Reciprocal: Job 20:14 – the gall Psa 58:4 – the deaf
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
20:16 He shall suck the {g} poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
(g) He compares ill-gotten goods to the venom of asps, which is a dangerous serpent, noting that Jobs great riches were not truly come by and therefore God plagues him justly for the same.