Venomous; so the viper is called by that appellative word, from whence also comes theriaca, or treacle, which is made out of flesh, or trochusses, of vipers. And if men can make an antidote out of poison, much more can God bring good out of evil. This man is a murderer; it is a strange sense that men by the light of nature had of Divine vengeance, especially of God's revenging of murder. Hence they called one of their furies Tisiphone, as one that punished and revenged murder. Yet they were to blame in this case:
1. Because they confine the punishment of wicked men wholly unto this life.
2. In that they did not expect the event; they judged before they knew what would be the end of Paul afterwards.
3. They erred, in that they measured the goodness or badness of a man's state or cause by his prosperity or adversity.