For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which [will] not [be] charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.
Ver. 17. Behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices,] i.e., Chaldees, no less virulent than serpents, as violent as horses. Serpentum tot sunt venena quot genera, tot pernicies quot species, tot dolores quot colores, saith an ancient. a Serpents are of several sorts, but all poisonous and pernicious. The basilisk or cockatrice here instanced (the worst sort of serpents, say the Septuagint here) goeth not upon the belly, as other serpents, but erect from the middle part, and doth so infect the air, that by the pestilent breath coming therefrom fruits are killed, and men being but looked upon by it, and birds flying over it; stones also are broken thereby, and all other serpents put to flight.
And they shall bite you.] There is an elegance in the original. b
a Isidor., lib. xii. cap. 2.
b Diod., Piscator.