Isaiah 14:29

14:29 Don’t be so happy, all you Philistines,

just because the club that beat you has been broken! ¹ 

For a viper will grow out of the serpent’s root,

and its fruit will be a darting adder. ² 

Proverbs 23:32

23:32 Afterward ³  it bites like a snake,

and stings like a viper.

[14:29]  ¹ sn The identity of this “club” (also referred to as a “serpent” in the next line) is uncertain. It may refer to an Assyrian king, or to Ahaz. For discussion see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:331-32. The viper/adder referred to in the second half of the verse is his successor.

[14:29]  ² tn Heb “flying burning one.” The designation “burning one” may allude to the serpent’s appearance or the effect of its poisonous bite. (See the note at 6:2.) The qualifier “flying” probably refers to the serpent’s quick, darting movements, though one might propose a homonym here, meaning “biting.” (See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:332, n. 18.) Some might think in terms of a mythological flying, fire breathing dragon (cf. NAB “a flying saraph”; CEV “a flying fiery dragon”), but this proposal does not make good sense in 30:6, where the phrase “flying burning one” appears again in a list of desert animals.

[23:32]  ³ tn Heb “its end”; NASB “At the last”; TEV (interpretively) “The next morning.”