cobra

There is general agreement among modern scholars that the word pethen refers to the cobra, since the word is closely associated with snake charming, which requires a snake that can raise the front part of its body vertically, something a viper cannot do. The words tsif‘oni and tsefa‘ are also probably references to a type of cobra. This can be well supported by the contexts in which the word occurs, in which reference is made to the fact that it lives in holes and lays eggs. These contexts would rule out any of the vipers.

There is some evidence that pethen was the earlier name for the cobra, and tsefa‘ and tsif‘oni were later names. Something similar is the case with English, where “cobra” has been in use only for the last one hundred years, and previously “asp” was used.

“Adder” is used as the name for some of the subspecies of viper and is probably not the best word to translate these three Hebrew words.

Cobras are characterized by their ability to spread the ribs in their neck area, so as to form a broad flat profile called the hood. This makes the snake look much thicker than it really is. Cobras also have short fixed fangs in the front of their mouths. The cobra that is found in the land of Israel is the Desert Cobra or Walter Innes’s snake (Walterinnesia aegyptia), while the cobra found in Egypt is the Egyptian Cobra Naja haje. The cobra is a large snake, reaching 2 meters (6 feet) in length, and about 50 millimeters (2 inches) in diameter. It is dark brown with a yellowish underside. In some areas where it is found it has broad yellowish bands, which give it its alternative English name, banded cobra. When it rears up and spreads its hood, the hood has a yellowish background, but displays a broad dark brown horizontal stripe.

Its bite is very poisonous, and it takes quick effect, acting on the nervous system. The cobra feeds on mice, gerbils, birds, bird’s eggs, lizards, frogs, and other snakes. It hunts by following scent trails, which it senses with its tongue. When within range of its prey, it raises its head slowly vertically, and suddenly strikes at the unsuspecting victim. It lives mainly in grassland and where the vegetation is fairly thick. It takes cover in rat holes, holes in eroded banks, hollow trees, under logs, and among exposed roots. It may lay its eggs in any of these sheltered places. In cold weather it coils itself up to preserve its body heat.

The cobra, besides being a symbol of lurking danger, was also closely associated with Egypt. In some poetic passages, therefore, it is a metaphor for the enemies of Israel, Egypt in particular.

The Egyptian cobra is found all over Africa, and a local word should not be difficult to find. In South and Southeast Asia a word for the King Cobra Naja hannah or one of the other cobras would be a good equivalent. In areas where these cobras are symbols of good luck and the presence of a deity, the Hebrew symbolism might need to be explained in a footnote. In other parts of the world, if cobras are unknown, the name of a local long poisonous snake of a type different from vipers and adders is a possible choice.

In passages where snakes are referred to as “stinging”, it is not necessary to use a verb meaning literally “to sting”. This is just the Hebrew way of referring to the bite of a snake. In many languages the verb used for a snake’s bite is different from the one used to refer to the bite of something else, such as a dog.

Desert cobra, Wikimedia Commons
Egyptian cobra, Wikimedia Commons

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See also flying fiery serpent, adder / serpent / asp / viper, and serpent.

spider

The two occurrences of this word in the Hebrew Bible are both in phrases that refer to the spider’s web. There is unanimity on this interpretation.

Spiders are eight-legged creatures that typically produce silken strands of web. This material may be used for making net-like webs (in the case of the orb spiders), lining nests, covering eggs, or, in the case of the trap-door spider, for making a hinge for the trap door. The orb spiders, which seem to be the ones referred to in the Bible, spin webs in which they catch their prey, mainly flying insects, such as flies, grasshoppers, and the like. In Israel there are literally scores of different spider species, and ‘akavish cannot be associated with any one of them. It is a general word for all spiders.

In the Bible, the spider’s web is viewed as something weak, temporary, and easily broken.

Spiders are found everywhere throughout the world. However, the spider’s web may not be viewed as something temporary and easily broken in the receptor culture. This is what leads New English Bible to translate Isaiah 59:5 as “they weave cobwebs” rather than “they weave the spider’s web,” since the former at least conveys the idea of something undesirable and of no value. In many languages an expression, such as “they weave a weak spider’s web” is a better equivalent. In Job 8:14 there is a Hebrew word whose meaning is unknown, but the sense is fairly clear:

What he trusts is fragile;
What he relies on is a weak spider’s web.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

adder / viper

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adder,” “asp,” “viper,” or “serpent” in English is translated in Lambya as chipili or “puff adder “, a highly poisonous local snake species. (Source: project-specific notes in Paratext)

 

There are a large number of snake species belonging to the viper family in Israel. From the contexts it is possible in one or two places to identify the particular species, and it is possible that the various Hebrew words actually refer to particular species. However, associating the various words with the corresponding species is largely conjecture, even though based on careful deduction.

The most common vipers in Israel are the Palestinian Viper Viper palaestina, the Carpet Viper Echis coloratus, the Sand Viper Cerastes vipera, and the Horned Viper Cerastes cerastes cerastes. The Palestinian viper is the largest of these vipers and is found in a variety of habitats, from the woods of the north to the desert’s edge. Since this is the most inhabited area, people are bitten by this snake more than any other. The other four vipers mentioned are found in desert areas, but in slightly different habitats. The sand viper and the horned viper live in the sand, while the carpet viper lives in gravelly areas and among rocks. It often camouflages itself among dried leaves.

The desert vipers, when moving in sand, cannot move in the normal way, so they adopt a movement known as “sidewinding”. They do this by moving a coil sideways to a position in front of the head, then the snake moves its head and the front part of its body in the air, arching over the sand as far as it can reach before falling back onto the sand. Then it repeats the movement again. This is done at some speed, and the snake moves diagonally across the sand surprisingly quickly, although not as quickly as another snake moving normally. The parallel elongated S-shaped marks it leaves in the sand look as though it has moved in a series of jumps, since they seem not to be connected. It is generally accepted that this motion caused the biblical writers to refer to these snakes as “flying” (see flying fiery serpent).

Vipers are different from other snakes mainly in that they give birth to live offspring. The females retain their eggs in a special sac in their bodies, and when the eggs hatch the small snakes emerge from the mother. The larger vipers produce as many as sixty young snakes at a time, while the smaller sand vipers have smaller broods of about twelve to fifteen. This is what John the Baptist refers to by his well-known phrase “brood of vipers”.

The vipers have long hinged fangs located in the front of their mouths. These fangs fold back as they close their mouths. When striking, vipers have to open their mouths very wide in order to get these fangs into the required position.

The carpet viper (also known as the saw-scaled viper) was very numerous in biblical Israel, and in most other areas of its range (it is found in a broad continuous band from West Africa to South and Central Asia). It is likely that this was the saraf, a name derived from a finite verb meaning “to burn something,” a reference to the burning effect of its poisonous bite.

Vipers have the same basic significance in the Bible as other snakes, with one additional feature. Since the young are carried alive inside the female viper, which then gives birth to large numbers of well-developed young, all at the same time, the viper was associated with fertility. This was also their significance in the Egyptian and Canaanite religious systems.

Although vipers are found widely all over the world, not all languages distinguish them from other types of snake. As mentioned above, the carpet viper is found across Central Africa, from the west to east coasts, and into Central and South Asia. In these areas the name for this snake can be used in all the verses that refer to vipers. In southern Africa the Puff Adder Bitis arietans is probably the best equivalent.

In order to retain the relationship of the word saraf with the verb “to burn something,” translators often try to use expressions such as “vipers that burn [people]” or “fiery serpents”. This is only possible where the word used for “burn” means “to cause a wound with something hot.” One should not convey the idea of “a viper that sets people on fire” or “a viper that is burning.” Often it is better to use a phrase meaning simply “poisonous vipers”.

See also vipers, You brood of vipers!, and cobra.

complete verse (Isaiah 59:5)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 59:5:

  • Kupsabiny: “You are hatching eggs of a snake,
    and you are weaving threads of a spider.
    When a person eats those eggs he surely dies
    and a snake comes out from an egg when it breaks.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “They hatch cobra eggs,
    and weave a spider’s web.
    Whoever eats their eggs dies, no matter who it might be.
    and if it is smashed, a poisonous snake will come out.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Your (plur.) evil plans are like an egg of a venomous snake, that the one-who-eats dies. This is also like a cobweb of a spider which cannot be made into a cloth, therefore your (plur.) evil plans have not value. What you (plur.) are doing (is) evil, and you (plur.) acted-cruelly.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Isaiah 59:5

In verses 5-6 snakes and spiders are used metaphorically to illustrate the actions of the people who abuse the justice system to hurt others. This results in a highly picturesque description. The metaphor concerning the eggs of poisonous snakes portrays something dangerous, while the metaphor of the spider’s web refers to something of little substance and useless.

Verse 5 opens by mentioning snakes’ eggs and a spider’s web, and then each of these metaphors is developed respectively in verse 5b and verse 6a. Good News Translation combines these verses to keep each metaphor separate. However, it is possible to do this without combining the verses by placing the second line of verse 5 concerning the spider’s web at the end of the verse (see the second example below). This is what Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch does.

They hatch adders’ eggs is literally “They break open serpents’ eggs.” The pronoun They refers to the evil people described in verse 4. The Hebrew verb for hatch is used with this same sense in 34.15. It refers to the moment when the eggs break open and the young ones come out. The Hebrew word rendered adder refers to a specific type of poisonous snake, the cobra (see the comments on 14.29). If a language does not have a specific word for this snake, translators may use a general expression for snakes, especially poisonous ones. In many cultures every snake is assumed to be poisonous. The implication of the metaphor here is that the people plan and devise plots that they intend will cause harm. Good News Translation clarifies this metaphor by saying “The evil plots you make are as deadly as the eggs of a poisonous snake.” Bible en français courant is similar with “Your plans are as harmful as the eggs of a snake,” and so is Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch with “Your plans are as deadly as the eggs of a poisonous snake.”

They weave the spider’s web is another metaphor describing the unjust people. There seem to be two implications here. First, the plans these people conceive are as useless as a spider’s web (see verse 6). Second, their plans are dangerous, because they entrap people in the same way a spider’s web traps insects. This line may be rendered as a simile by saying “They are like spiders that weave their webs.”

He who eats their eggs dies refers to the snakes’ eggs mentioned in the first line. Whether eating a snake’s egg, even if it comes from a poisonous snake, can actually cause death is not the point here. The prophet links the snakes and their eggs to create a picture of something poisonous and thus life threatening. It is a metaphor of deadly danger to people.

And from one which is crushed a viper is hatched: If one of the cobras’ eggs is broken open, a viper, which is another type of poisonous snake, will come out. This is another metaphor signifying grave danger. One which is crushed may be rendered “a broken egg.” For viper see the comments on 30.6. Is hatched renders the same Hebrew verb as in the first line. Translators do not need to look for formal equivalents to each word in this line, but they should look for a natural rendering that expresses the metaphor clearly and suggests the deadly danger that is implied; for example, Bible en français courant has “the egg is barely open when a viper comes out of it.”

Translation examples for this verse are:

• They hatch cobras’ eggs
and spin spiders’ webs.
Anyone who eats the cobras’ eggs will die,
and from a broken egg a viper will emerge.

• They hatch snakes’ eggs,
and anyone eating the eggs will die,
and from a broken egg a viper will emerge.
They also spin spiders’ webs.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .