to suck · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
poison
רֹאשׁrosh-
H7219
a poisonous plant · noun, common masculine singular construct
asps
פְּתָנִ֥יםpe.ta.Nim
H6620
an asp (from its contortions) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
viper’s
אֶפְעֶֽה'ef.'Eh
H660
an asp or other venomous serpent · noun, common masculine singular absolute
tongue
לְשׁ֣וֹןle.Shon
H3956
the tongue (of man or animals) · noun, common both genders singular construct
slay
תַּֽ֝הַרְגֵ֗הוּta.har.Ge.hu
H2026
to smite with deadly intent · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Acts 28:3-6 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.
Romans 3:13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Deuteronomy 32:24 They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them…
Isaiah 30:6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery fl…
Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to f…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 20:10-22
The instances here given of the miserable condition of the wicked man in this world are expressed with great fulness and fluency of language, and the same thing returned to again and repeated in other words. Let us therefore reduce the particulars to their proper heads, and observe,
I. What his wickedness is for which he is punished.
1. The lusts of the flesh, here called the sins of his youth (Job 20:11); for those are the sins which, at that age, people are most tempted to. The forbidden pleasures of sense are said to be sweet in his mouth (Job 20:12); he indulges himself in all the gratifications of the carnal appetite, and takes an inordinate complacency in them, as yielding the most agr…
shall suck--It shall turn out that he has sucked the poison, &c.
John Gill on Job 20:16
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 s…
12 If wickedness tasted sweet in his mouth,
He hid it under his tongue;
13 He carefully cherished it and did not let it go,
And retained it in his palate:
14 His bread is now changed in his bowels,
It is the gall of vipers within him.
15 He hath swallowed down riches and now he spitteth them out,
God shall drive them out of his belly.
16 He sucked in the poison of vipers,
The tongue of the adder slayeth him.
The evil-doer is, in Job 20:12, likened to an epicure; he keeps hold of wickedness as long as possible, like a delicate morsel that is retained in the mouth (Renan: comme un bonbon qu'on laisse fondre dans la bouche), and seeks to enjoy it to the very last. המתּיק, to make sweet, has her…
The Church Fathers
"He will burst into him the fury of the dragon. He knew how to hide first; but now, betrayed by tribulation, he will make the dragon's fury appear to everyone. "Let the tongue of the viper make him die. That the demoule seduces.
Ver. 16. He shall suck the head of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him. 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 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 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 tongue slayeth him,' in that afterwards the captive soul is killed by the venom of violent temptation. In the first case unclean spirits speak to the heart of man with their crafty counsels, and these, while they persuade with gentleness, as it were infuse the poison of asps. Whence it is written, They break asps' eggs, and weave the spider's web; He that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is hatched breaketh out into a basilisk. [Is. 59, 5] Since to 'break asps' eggs,' to wicked men is, to manifest by evil deeds the counsels of evil spirits, which lurk in their hearts. Moreover, to 'weave spiders' webs' is, on account of the lust of this world, to be busied in any temporal employments. Which, whilst they are established with no stedfastness, assuredly are carried off by the wind of a mortal life. And it is well added; He that eateth of their eggs dieth. In that he that admits the counsels of impure spirits kills the life of his soul in him. 'And that which is hatched, breaketh out into a basilisk,' in that the suggestion of the bad spirit which is covered up in the heart, is nursed unto full iniquity. For 'basilisk' means the king of serpents, and who is the head of the sons of perdition, save Antichrist? Therefore 'that, which is hatched, will break out into a basilisk,' in that he who harbours in himself the counsel of the 'asp' to nourish them to life, being made a…
Dictionary and topics
Asp — (Heb. pethen), Deut. 32:33; Job 20:14, 16; Isa. 11:8. It was probably the Egyptian cobra (Naja haje), which was very poisonous (Rom. 3:13; Gr. aspis). The Egyptians worshipped it as the uraeus, and…
Gall — (1) Heb. mererah, meaning “bitterness” (Job 16:13); i.e., the bile secreted in the liver. This word is also used of the poison of asps (20:14), and of the vitals, the seat of life (25). (2.) Heb.…
Hemlock — (1.) Heb. rosh (Hos. 10:4; rendered “gall” in Deut. 29:18; 32:32; Ps. 69:21; Jer. 9:15; 23:15; “poison,” Job 20:16; “venom,” Deut. 32:33). “Rosh is the name of some poisonous plant which grows…
Poison — (1.) Heb. hemah, “heat,” the poison of certain venomous reptiles (Deut. 32:24, 33; Job 6:4; Ps. 58:4), causing inflammation. (2.) Heb. rosh, “a head,” a poisonous plant (Deut. 29:18), growing…
Serpent — (Heb. nahash; Gr. ophis), frequently noticed in Scripture. More than forty species are found in Syria and Arabia. The poisonous character of the serpent is alluded to in Jacob’s blessing on Dan (Gen.…
Viper — In Job 20:16, Isa. 30:6; 59:5, the Heb. word eph’eh is thus rendered. The Hebrew word, however, probably denotes a species of poisonous serpents known by the Arabic name of ‘el ephah. Tristram has…
Afflictions Of The Wicked, The · Are multiplied — Are multiplied
Asp · A venomous serpent — A venomous serpent
Asp, Or Adder · Described as: Venomous — Described as: Venomous
Hypocrisy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
poisonous venom . . . cobras . . . viper: In the end, the wicked are no longer deadly to others (Matt 3:7; Rom 3:13) but only to themselves (Prov 23:29-35).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Riches
· Denunciations against those who: Spend, upon their appetite
— Denunciations against those who: Spend, upon their appetite
Serpent · Venom of — Venom of
Viper · A serpent — A serpent
Worldliness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
