Job 20:16
He shall suck the head of asps, and the viper's tongue shall kill him.
Open Job 20:16 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Caput aspidum suget, et occidet eum lingua viperæ.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- θυμὸν δὲ δρακόντων θηλάσειεν, ἀνέλοι δὲ αὐτὸν γλῶσσα ὄφεως.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- רֹאשׁ פְּתָנִ֥ים יִינָ֑ק תַּֽ֝הַרְגֵ֗הוּ לְשׁ֣וֹן אֶפְעֶֽה
Haydock's commentary
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)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.