Serpent

How Nave’s arranged it

• Satan appears to Eve in the form ofGenesis 3:1–152 Corinthians 11:3
• Subtlety ofGenesis 3:1Ecclesiastes 10:8Matthew 10:16
• Curse uponGenesis 3:14Genesis 3:15Genesis 49:17
• Feeds upon the dustGenesis 3:14Isaiah 65:25Micah 7:17
• Unfit for foodMatthew 7:10
• Venom ofDeuteronomy 32:24Deuteronomy 32:33Job 20:16Psalms 58:4Psalms 140:3Proverbs 23:31Proverbs 23:32Acts 28:5Acts 28:6
• The staff of Moses transformed intoExodus 4:3Exodus 7:15
• Fiery (poisonous), sent as a plague upon the IsraelitesNumbers 21:6Numbers 21:7Deuteronomy 8:151 Corinthians 10:9
• The wound of, miraculously healed by looking upon the bronze snake, erected by MosesNumbers 21:8Numbers 21:9
• The charming ofPsalms 58:4Psalms 58:5Ecclesiastes 10:11Jeremiah 8:17
• Mentioned in Solomon' s riddleProverbs 30:19
• Constriction ofRevelation 9:19

The passages, in Bible order (37)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 16 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Genesis 3:1–15

   Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”

   ›Commentary on Genesis 3:1–152 voices

   WE understand, of course, that this verse refers to "that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan." The Samaritan Version reads, instead of the word, "serpent," "deceiver," or "liar." If this is not the genuine reading, it nevertheless certainly declares a Truth of God. That old deceiver, of whom our Lord Jesus said to the Jews. "When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it," was "more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made."

   “Though Moses makes no mention of this wicked spirit--giving only the history of the visible world--yet in the fuller discoveries of the Gospel, it is distinctly intimated that Satan was the author of the plot (Joh 8:44; Re 20:2). more subtile--Serpents are proverbial for wisdom (Mt 10:16).

   Everything gathered on Genesis 3:1–15→

   Verse page →Original language →

2. Genesis 3:14

   So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 3:142 voices

   “From being a model of grace and elegance in form, it has become the type of all that is odious, disgusting, and low [LE CLERC, ROSENMULLER]; or the curse has converted its natural condition into a punishment; it is now branded with infamy and avoided with horror; next, on the spiritual serpent, the seducer.

   “And the Lord God said unto the serpent - The tempter is not asked why he deceived the woman; he cannot roll the blame on any other; self-tempted he fell, and it is natural for him, such is his enmity, to deceive and destroy all he can. His fault admits of no excuse, and therefore God begins to pronounce sentence on him first. And here we must consider a twofold sentence, one on Satan and the other on the agent he employed.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 3:14→

   Verse page →Original language →

3. Genesis 3:15

   And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

   ›Commentary on Genesis 3:152 voices

   He has therefore, in His work of recapitulation, summed up all things, both waging war against our enemy, and crushing him who had at the beginning led us away captives in Adam, and trampled upon his head, as thou canst perceive in Genesis that God said to the serpent, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; He shall be on the watch for thy head, and thou on the watch for His heel."

   “I will put enmity between thee and the woman - This has been generally supposed to apply to a certain enmity subsisting between men and serpents; but this is rather a fancy than a reality. It is yet to be discovered that the serpentine race have any peculiar enmity against mankind, nor is there any proof that men hate serpents more than they do other noxious animals.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 3:15→

   Verse page →Original language →

4. Genesis 49:17

   He will be a snake by the road, a viper in the path that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 49:171 voice

   “Dan shall be a serpent - The original word is נחש nachash, and we have seen on Genesis 3 that this has a great variety of significations. It is probable that a serpent is here intended, but of what kind we know not; yet as the principal reference in the text is to guile, cunning, etc., the same creature may be intended as in Genesis 3. A cerastes upon the track - The word שפיפון shephiphon, which is nowhere else to be found in the Bible, is thus translated by the Vulgate, and Bochart approves of the translation.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 49:17→

   Verse page →Original language →

5. Exodus 4:3

   “Throw it on the ground,” said the LORD. So Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it.

   ›Commentary on Exodus 4:31 voice

   “A serpent - This miracle had a meaning which Moses could not mistake. The serpent was probably the basilisk or Uraeus, the Cobra. This was the symbol of royal and divine power on the diadem of every Pharaoh. The conversion of the rod was not merely a portent, it was a sign, at once a pledge and representation of victory over the king and gods of Egypt!

   Everything gathered on Exodus 4:3→

   Verse page →Original language →

6. Exodus 7:15

   Go to Pharaoh in the morning as you see him walking out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake.

   ›Commentary on Exodus 7:152 voices

   “Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning,.... The next morning, a time in which the mind is most composed and sedate, and fit to attend to what may be suggested: lo, he goeth out unto the water; the river Nile, either to take his morning's walk, and to refresh himself at the waterside, as the Jerusalem Targum; or to observe divinations upon the water, as a magician, as the Targum of Jonathan. So in the Talmud (d) it is said, that the Pharaoh in the days of Moses was a magician.

   “He goeth out unto the water - The Nile was worshipped under various names and symbols; at Memphis especially, as Hapi, i. e. Apis, the sacred bull, or living representation of Osiris, of whom the river was regarded as the embodiment or manifestation. If, as is probable, the king went to offer his devotions, the miracle would have special force and suitableness. It was also the season of the yearly overflowing, about the middle of June; and the daily rise of the water was accurately recorded, under the personal superintendence of the king.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 7:15→

   Verse page →Original language →

7. Numbers 21:6

   So the LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died.

   ›Commentary on Numbers 21:62 voices

   “The only known remedy consists in sucking the wound, or, in the case of cattle, in the application of ammonia. The exact species of serpents that caused so great mortality among the Israelites cannot be ascertained. They are said to have been "fiery," an epithet applied to them either from their bright, vivid color, or the violent inflammation their bite occasioned.

   “Fiery serpents - הנחשים השרפים hannechashim hasseraphim. I have observed before, on Gen. iii., that it is difficult to assign a name to the creature termed in Hebrew nachash; it has different significations, but its meaning here and in Gen. iii. is most difficult to be ascertained. Seraphim is one of the orders of angelic beings, Isa 6:2, Isa 6:6; but as it comes from the root שרף saraph, which signifies to burn, it has been translated fiery in the text.

   Everything gathered on Numbers 21:6→

   Verse page →Original language →

8. Numbers 21:7

   Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Intercede with the LORD so He will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses interceded for the people.

   ›Commentary on Numbers 21:71 voice

   “This peculiar method of cure was designed, in the first instance, to show that it was the efficacy of God's power and grace, not the effect of nature or art, and also that it might be a type of the power of faith in Christ to heal all who look to Him because of their sins (Joh 3:14, 15; see also on 2Ki 18:4).

   Everything gathered on Numbers 21:7→

   Verse page →Original language →

9. Numbers 21:8

   Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.”

   ›Commentary on Numbers 21:82 voices

   “The serpent signified Christ, who was in the likeness of sinful flesh, though without sin, as this brazen serpent had the outward shape, but not the inward poison, of the other serpents: the pole resembled the cross upon which Christ was lifted up for our salvation: and looking up to it designed our believing in Christ.

   “Many things were done in figure which were done in former times. For when he said that the fathers who were bitten by serpents in the desert could not be healed in any other way except that Moses hung up a brazen serpent, and when this was seen, those deadly bites and injurious effects of the poison were cured, he added: But these things were done in figure to instruct us (1 Corinthians 10:6).

   Everything gathered on Numbers 21:8→

   Verse page →Original language →

10. Numbers 21:9

    So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. If anyone who was bitten looked at the bronze snake, he would live.

    ›Commentary on Numbers 21:92 voices

    “Many things were done in figure which were done in former times. For when he said that the fathers who were bitten by serpents in the desert could not be healed in any other way except that Moses hung up a brazen serpent, and when this was seen, those deadly bites and injurious effects of the poison were cured, he added: But these things were done in figure to instruct us (1 Corinthians 10:6).

    “That brazen serpent was hung up as a remedy for the biting serpents, not as a type of him that suffered for us but as a contrast. It saved those that looked upon it, not because they believed it to live but because it was killed, and killed with it were the powers that were subject to it, being destroyed as it deserved. And what is the fitting epitaph for it from us? "O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" You are overthrown by the cross.

    Everything gathered on Numbers 21:9→

    Verse page →Original language →

11. Deuteronomy 8:15

    He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.

    ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 8:151 voice

    “Render: “Who brought thee through that great and terrible wilderness, the fiery serpent and the scorpion, and the dry land where are no waters.” On the fiery serpents see Num 21:6 note.

    Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 8:15→

    Verse page →Original language →

12. Deuteronomy 32:24

    They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.

    ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 32:242 voices

    “They shall be burnt with hunger - Their land shall be cursed, and famine shall prevail. This is one of the arrows. Burning heat - No showers to cool the atmosphere; or rather boils, blains, and pestilential fevers; this was a second. Bitter destruction - The plague; this was a third. Teeth of beasts - with the poison of serpents - The beast of the field should multiply upon and destroy them; this was a fourth: and poisonous serpents, infesting all their steps, and whose mortal bite should produce the utmost anguish, were to be a fifth arrow.

    “They shall be burnt with hunger,.... This is the arrow of famine, Eze 5:16; the force of which is such that it makes the skin black as if burnt, Lam 5:10; Onkelos paraphrases it,"inflated or swelled with famine,''which is a phrase Josephus (b) makes use of in describing the famine at the siege of Jerusalem.

    Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 32:24→

    Verse page →Original language →

13. Deuteronomy 32:33

    Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.

    ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 32:332 voices

    “Their wine is the poison of dragons,.... Of these creatures, both land and sea dragons; see Gill on Mic 1:8; See Gill on Mal 1:3; Pliny says (l) the dragon has no poison in it; yet, as Dalechamp, in his notes on that writer observes, he in many places prescribes remedies against the bite of the dragon; but Heliodorus (m) expressly speaks of some archers, whose arrows were infected with the poison of dragons; and Leo Africanus (n) says, the Atlantic dragons are exceeding poisonous: and yet other writers (o) besides Pliny have asserted that they are free from poison.

    “They were planted a choice vine, wholly a right seed, but by sin had become the degenerate plant of a strange vine ( Jer. ii. 21 ), and not only transcribed the iniquity of Sodom, but outdid it, Ezek. xvi.

    Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 32:33→

    Verse page →Original language →

14. Job 20:16

    He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill him.

    ›Commentary on Job 20:162 voices

    “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.'

    “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.

    Everything gathered on Job 20:16→

    Verse page →Original language →

15. Psalms 58:4

    Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like a cobra that shuts its ears,

    ›Commentary on Psalms 58:42 voices

    “Their poison is like the poison of a serpent. Is man also a poisonous reptile? Yes, and his venom is even as that of a serpent. The viper has but death for the body in his fangs; but unregenerate man carries poison under his tongue, destructive to the nobler nature. They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear.

    “We hide away our sin, cloaking it over in the depth of our soul, like some festering and malignant disease, as if by escaping human notice we could escape the mighty eye of God and justice. Or else we make excuses for our sins by devising pleas in defense of our falls or by tightly closing our ears. Like the snake that stops its ears, we are obstinate in refusing to hear the voice of the charmer and be treated with the medicines of wisdom, by which spiritual sickness is healed.

    Everything gathered on Psalms 58:4→

    Verse page →Original language →

16. Psalms 58:5

    refusing to hear the tune of the charmer who skillfully weaves his spell.

    ›Commentary on Psalms 58:52 voices

    “Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers,.... Or "that use enchantments", to enchant serpents, by muttering certain words, or by magical songs; by which means it is said that they have been drawn out of their holes, or caused to fly, or have become stupefied, and have lost their poison, and even burst asunder; as Bochart (b) relates from Pliny, Aelianus, Lucan, Isidore, Virgil, Ovid, Horace, and others: but an "asp" is unmoved by enchantments, and they are of no avail against its bites and poison (c).

    “Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. Ungodly men are not to be won to right by arguments the most logical, or appeals the most pathetic. Try all your arts, ye preachers of the word! Lay yourselves out to meet the prejudices and tastes of sinners, and ye shall yet have to cry, "Who hath believed our report?" It is not in your music, but in the sinner's ear that the cause of failure lies, and it is only the power of God that can remove it.

    Everything gathered on Psalms 58:5→

    Verse page →Original language →