He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.
Ver. 16. He shall suck the poison of asps] That lieth in his head, whence also it hath its name in the original. See Trapp on " Job 20:14 " Caput aspidis suger, saith the Vulgate. It is said of the toad that he hath in his head a stone of great virtue, called Bufonites. But the asp hath nothing in his head but strong poison. This the rich wretch shall suck, like as he was wont to suck the blood of the poor oppressed, to eat their flesh, Psalms 14:4, and to eviscerate them.
The viper's tongue shall slay him] Perinde cedet ei maleficium, saith Junius; his wickedness shall prove his bane, unless he presently take the antidote of repentance, whereby to expel the poison ere it get to the vitals. Repentance is the soul's best vomit, the hardest, but wholesomest medicine. It is repentance unto life; whereas the sins of the impenitent are mortal, saith St John 1 John 5:17, or rather immortal, as saith St Paul, Romans 2:5. The hand that is here and elsewhere lifted up in threatening, Isaiah 26:11, will fall down in punishing. "The wages of sin is death." When the barbarians saw the viper hanging on St Paul's hand, they looked when he would fall down dead, Acts 28:4; Acts 28:6. The devil's design was there to have slain Paul, but he was defeated. And Brentius holdeth that the metaphor here used is taken not so much from serpents, whose venom lieth in their tongues, as from Satan, who, by the serpent in Paradise, cast our first parents into all kind of evils. Another there is who thus explains this text, Caput viperis suget. When vipers engender, the female sucketh the head of the male, and biteth it off with great delight; then she conceiveth her young ones, which eat out her belly. So the oppressor, getting the poor man's goods, they seem sweet unto him, but at the last his sin findeth him out, for it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder, as Solomon saith of drunkenness (which Austin calleth dulce venenum, a sweet poison), Proverbs 23:32 .