20:16 He sucks the poison 1 of serpents; 2
the fangs 3 of a viper 4 kill him.
32:24 They will be starved by famine,
eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; 5
I will send the teeth of wild animals against them,
along with the poison of creatures that crawl in the dust.
3:13 “Their throats are open graves, 6
they deceive with their tongues,
the poison of asps is under their lips.” 7
1 tn The word is a homonym for the word for “head,” which has led to some confusion in the early versions.
2 sn To take the possessions of another person is hereby compared to sucking poison from a serpent – it will kill eventually.
3 tn Heb “tongue.”
4 tn Some have thought this verse is a gloss on v. 14 and should be deleted. But the word for “viper” (אֶפְעֶה, ’ef’eh) is a rare word, occurring only here and in Isa 30:6 and 59:5. It is unlikely that a rarer word would be used in a gloss. But the point is similar to v. 14 – the wealth that was greedily sucked in by the wicked proves to be their undoing. Either this is totally irrelevant to Job’s case, a general discussion, or the man is raising questions about how Job got his wealth.
5 tn The Hebrew term קֶטֶב (qetev) is probably metaphorical here for the sting of a disease (HALOT 1091-92 s.v.).
6 tn Grk “their throat is an opened grave.”
7 sn A quotation from Pss 5:9; 140:3.