Jeremiah 8:17 BSB — MannaFest

Jeremiah 8:17

“For behold, I will send snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” declares the LORD.

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

ASV

For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, saith Jehovah.

KJV

For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.

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Commentary

4 voices

Jerome

Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

(Verse 17) Behold, I will send you serpents, rulers (or as the Septuagint translated, deadly ones) with whom there is no enchantment. And they will bite you, says the Lord, incurably, and you will fail with the pain of your heart. Those who come from Dan, whose noise has been heard and who have turned the whole land into a wilderness, are the same ones that the prophetic word indicates under a different figure, calling them deadly serpents or rulers as the Hebrew word Saphphonim ().

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

John Gill

1697–1771

Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you,.... The Chaldeans, comparable to these noxious and hurtful creatures, because of the mischief they should do unto them. The Targum is, "for, lo, I will raise up against you people that kill as the destroying serpents.'' These were raised up by the Lord, and sent by him, just as he sent fiery serpents among the Israelites in the wilderness, when they sinned against him; there literally, here metaphorically.

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

Albert Barnes

1798–1870

Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

I will send - Or, am sending. No prophet changes his metaphors so suddenly as Jeremiah. The invading army is now compared to snakes, whom no charming can soothe, and whose bite is fatal. Compare Num 21:5-6. Cockatrices - “Vipers.” See Isa 11:8 note.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

I--Jehovah. cockatrices--basilisks (Isa 11:8), that is, enemies whose destructive power no means, by persuasion or otherwise, can counteract. Serpent-charmers in the East entice serpents by music, and by a particular pressure on the neck render them incapable of darting (Ps 58:4, 5).

Voices on this verse

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Original language & word study

14 tagged words

Original	Transliteration	Meaning	Word study
כִּי֩	ki	for	H3588 →
הִנְנִ֨י	hi.Ni	here I	H2005 →
מְשַׁלֵּ֜חַ	me.sha.Le.ach	[am] about to send	H7971 →
בָּכֶ֗ם	ba.Khem	among <the> you
נְחָשִׁים֙	ne.cha.Shim	snakes	H5175 →
צִפְעֹנִ֔ים	tzif.'o.Nim	vipers	H6848 →
אֲשֶׁ֥ר	'a.Sher	which	H834 →
אֵין־	'ein-	there not	H369 →
לָהֶ֖ם	la.Hem	for <the> them
לָ֑חַשׁ	La.chash	[is] a charm	H3908 →
וְנִשְּׁכ֥וּ	ve.ni.she.Khu	and they will bite	H5391 →
אֶתְכֶ֖ם	'et.Khem	<obj.> you	H853 →
נְאֻם־	ne.'um-	[the] utterance of	H5002 →
יְהוָֽה׃ ס	Yah.weh	Yahweh	H3068 →

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

The walk

The walk8

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Numbers 21:6
So the LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died.
leads to
- 1 Corinthians 10:9
  We should not test Christ, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes.
- 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.
- Amos 9:3–4
  Though they hide themselves atop Carmel, there I will track them and seize them; and though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite…
Through
Isaiah 14:29
Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken. For a viper will spring from the root of the snake, and a flying serpent from its egg.
leads to
- Isaiah 30:6
  This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of…
  Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
- Isaiah 11:8
  The infant will play by the cobra’s den, and the toddler will reach into the viper’s nest.
- 2 Chronicles 26:6
  Uzziah went out to wage war against the Philistines, and he tore down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. Then he built cities near Ashdod and among the Philistines.
Through
Ecclesiastes 10:11
If the snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.
leads to
- Psalms 58:4–5
  Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like a cobra that shuts its ears,
Through
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.
leads to
- Leviticus 26:22
  I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.

About Jeremiah

The Prophet Jeremiah — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Jeremiah: the study guide →Read chapter 8 →The featured study →

Continue: Jeremiah 8 →

01Commentary

The record, by era

Voices on this verse

02Original language & word study

03The walk

Where the connections lead

04Related verses

06About Jeremiah

The record, by era

Where the connections lead

Commentary

Original language & word study

The walk

Related verses

About Jeremiah