Psalms 58:4

Their poison [is] like the poison of a serpent,.... Either their "wrath" and fury, as the word (x) may be rendered, against God, his people, and even one another, is like that of a serpent when

Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; Their poison. The Hebrew (chamath) means primarily burning heat, as poison inflames the system (James 3:7-8).

Their poison, their virulent and malicious disposition, is like the poison of a serpent; partly in itself, being natural, and inveterate, and incurable; and partly in its most pernicious effects.

Psalms 58:4 Their poison [is] like the poison of a serpent: [they are] like the deaf adder [that] stoppeth her ear;Ver. 4. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent] Their inbred corruption (the spawn of that old serpent, Genesis 3:1-14) is strong, and full of infection, able to kill both the party in whom it is and the other also upon whom it is cast. Malice drinketh up the most part of its own venom, but some it spitteth out upon others; for it is not like the maid whom Avicen mentioneth, who, feeding upon poison, was herself healthy, yet infected others with her venomous breath, Deuteronomy 32:33. Hot poison have they, like as the hot poison of a serpent (so some render it), yea, of the worst sort of serpents, the asp (for serpentum quot colores tot dolores, saith Isidore), the venom whereof is incurable, saith Pliny, lib. viii. c. 3; unless the members touched therewith be immediately cut off. They are like the deaf adder (or asp) that stoppeth her ear] So that their naughtiness is not natural only, but habitual, acquired, wilful; they refuse to be reformed, they hate to be healed, and must, therefore, be turned over to God with a Noluerunt incantari, they would not be reclaimed, they are uncounselable, unpersuasible. The adder or asp here hath her name Pethen, from persuasibleness, but it is by antiphrasis. Wicked men are likewise said to be απειθεις, unpersuaded, or disobedient, Titus 1:16, and children of disobedience, Ephesians 2:2, such as whom Non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris, speak you never so persuasively, ye shall never persuade. Nay, but we will have a king, said they of old, when they had nothing else to say. So Pharaoh, when clearly convinced, sent for the sorcerers.

(4) Their poison . . .—Better, they have a venom like, &c. The term for serpent is the generic nâchash.The most forcible images of determined wickedness, and of the destruction it entails, now follow. The first is supplied by the serpent, the more suggestive from the accumulated evil qualities of which that animal has from the first been considered the type. Here the figure is heightened, since the animal is supposed to have been first tamed, but suddenly darts forth its fangs, and shows itself not only untamed, but untameable. Adder.—Heb., pethen, translated asp in Deuteronomy 32:33; Job 20:14; Isaiah 11:8 (and here by the LXX.) In the Bible Educator iv. 103, the pethen is identified with the Egyptian cobra, the species upon which the serpent charmers practise their peculiar science. Deaf.—So Jeremiah 8:17 refers to various kinds of serpents that “will not be charmed.” Here, however, it would seem as if the poet were thinking of some individual of a species, generally tractable, that obstinately resists the spells and incantations of the charmer. The image of the deaf adder was a favourite with Shakespeare, who, no doubt, derived it from this psalm. “Pleasure and revenge Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice Of any true decision.” Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2. (Comp. 2 Hen. VI., iii. 2.)

Verse 4. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent] When they bite, they convey poison into the wound, as the serpent does. They not only injure you by outward acts, but by their malevolence they poison your reputation. They do you as much evil as they can, and propagate the worst reports that others may have you in abhorrence, treat you as a bad and dangerous man; and thus, as the poison from the bite of the serpent is conveyed into the whole mass of blood, and circulates with it through all the system, carrying death every where; so they injurious speeches and vile insinuations circulate through society, and poison and blast your reputation in every place. Such is the slanderer, and such his influence in society. From such no reputation is safe; with such no character is sacred; and against such there is no defence. God alone can shield the innocent from the envenomed tongue and lying lips of such inward monsters in the shape of men. Like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear] It is a fact that cannot be disputed with any show of reason, that in ancient times there were persons that charmed, lulled to inactivity, or professed to charm, serpents, so as to prevent them from biting. See Ecclesiastes 10:11; Jeremiah 8:17. The prince of Roman poets states the fact, VIRG. Ecl. viii., ver. 71. Frigidus in prati cantando rumpitur anguis. "In the meadows the cold snake is burst by incantation." The same author, AEn. vii., ver. 750, gives us the following account of the skill of Umbro, a priest of the Marrubians: - Quin et Marrubia venit de gente sacerdos, Fronde super galeam, et felici comptus oliva, Archippi regis missu, fortissimus Umbro; Vipereo generi, et graviter spirantibus hydris, Spargere qui somnos cantuque manuque solebat, Mulcebatque iras, et morsus arte levabat. "Umbro, the brave Marubian priest, was there, Sent by the Marsian monarch to the war. The smiling olive with her verdant boughs Shades his bright helmet, and adorns his brows. His charms in peace the furious serpent keep, And lull the envenomed viper's race to sleep: His healing hand allayed the raging pain; And at his touch the poisons fled again." PITT. There is a particular sect of the Hindoos who profess to bring serpents into subjection, and deprive them of their poison, by incantation. See at the end of this Psalm. See Clarke on Psalms 58:11.

3–5. A description of the class to which these wicked judges belong; the deliberately wicked, who are deaf to remonstrance and incapable of reformation.

Their poison - Their malignity; their bad spirit; that which they utter or throw out of their mouth. The reference here is to what they speak or utter Psalms 58:3, and the idea is, that it is penetrating and deadly.

4. Their poison—All sin is of the nature of poison, but the sin of these men was like the poison of a serpent, active and deadly.