Isaiah 59:5

They hatch cockatrice eggs, and weave the spider's web,.... Invent false doctrines according to their own fancies, which may seem fair and plausible, but are poisonous and pernicious; as the "eggs

They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Cockatrice. Probably the basilisk serpent cerastes (cf. note, Isaiah 11:8).

They hatch cockatrice eggs; or adder, or basilisk; one kind put for any venomous creature; a proverbial speech, signifying by these eggs mischievous designs, and by hatching them their putting them in practice: this is to show that mischief is natural to them, and they can do no otherwise, poison is natural to these eggs. Weave the spider’ s web; another proverbial speech, whereby is taught, both how by their plots they weave nets, lay snares industriously, with great pains and artifice, whereby they may entangle and involve their poor neighbours in intricacies and perplexities, and so devour them, as the spider weaves her web to catch flies, and then to feed on them; and also how that they contrive nothing but what will tend to their own ruin, as the issue of the viper is the death of the mother, and they and their designs will come to nothing, and not answer their end, as the spider’ s web is soon swept away, and is seen no more, which doth well agree with what follows. He that eateth of their eggs dieth: here is a catachrestical allusion, noting that he who hath commerce with them, and approves their counsels, which are the eggs which they hatch, will be poisoned with them. And that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper: if and be copulative here, then the sense is either, If any seek to crush and disappoint their plots, or if they be sprinkled or dispersed abroad, (as the margin seems to favour,) they will seek his ruin, will be as a viper to him. But if and be causal, as it often is, and may be here, then the sense is, q.d. He dieth, because the eggs being crushed, a poisonous viper proceeds from it; the more you partake of their counsels, the more you are infected, there lies such a dreadful poison embodied in them.

Isaiah 59:5 They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’ s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Ver. 5. They hatch cockatrice’ eggs,] i.e., Poisonous and pernicious designs; there are that interpret it of false doctrines, as destruetive to men’ s souls, as cockatrice’ eggs eaten, or but broken, would be to their bodies. As the bird that sitteth on the serpent’ s eggs, by breaking and hatching them, bringeth forth a perilous brood to her own destruction, so here. And weave the spider’ s web.] Good for nothing but to catch flies. The natural man is ever either weaving spider’ s webs, which are futiles and fragiles, or hatching cockatrice’ eggs. Vanity or villany is his whole study and practice.

(5) They hatch cockatrice’ eggs.—Better, basilisk’s, as in Isaiah 14:29. The schemes of the evil-doers are displayed in their power for evil and their impotence for good. To “eat of the eggs,” which are assumed to be poisonous, is to fall in with their schemes, and so be ruined: to “crush” them is to oppose and so to rouse a more venomous opposition. Men break the egg, and the living viper darts forth to attack them.

5–8. These verses differ somewhat in character from Isaiah 59:3 f., and are regarded by Duhm and Cheyne as a quotation from some Psalm or collection of proverbs. In point of fact the first part of Isa 59:7 appears in Proverbs 1:16, but probably as an interpolation, since the verse is wanting in the LXX. On the other hand, Isaiah 59:7-8 are partly reproduced in the LXX. recension of Psa 14:3, as in Romans 3:10 ff. These facts do not by themselves raise any presumption against the genuineness of the passage in this discourse; and the first image of Isa 59:5 connects itself naturally enough with the conclusion of Isa 59:4. It must be admitted, however, that the description can only apply to a limited class of utter reprobates, and there is some difficulty in conceiving that it can be the continuation of Isa 59:3-4, which contain perfectly definite and intelligible accusations against a whole community.

They hatch cockatrice’ eggs - Margin, ‘Adders’.’ On the meaning of the word rendered here ‘cockatrice,’ see the notes at Isaiah 11:8.

5, 6. Cockatrice’s eggs — Hatched into basilisks, (see Isaiah 11:8;) a fabulous reptile — its gaze supposed to be fatal, its eggs, as food, certainly poisonous.