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).
They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear. The "adder" х peten (H6620)], or 'asp,' as elsewhere the Hebrew is translated, х aspis (G785), in Septuagint]. It is the 'haje naja' or cobra of Egypt according to Cuvier. The hearing of all the serpent tribes is imperfect, as all are destitute of a tympanic cavity, and of external openings to the ear. "The deaf adder" is not a particular species. The point of the rebuke is, the pethen (H6620), or "adder" here in question, could hear in some degree, but would not; just as the unrighteous judges, or persecutors of David, could hear with their outward ears such appeals as he makes in Psalms 58:1-2, but would not. The charmer usually could charm the serpent by shrill sounds, either of his voices or of the flute, the serpent's comparative deafness rendering it the more amenable to those sounds which it could hear. But exceptional cases occurred of a "deaf adder" which was deaf only in the sense that it refused to hear, or to be acted on. Also Jeremiah 8:17; cf; Ecclesiastes 10:11. Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible,' Appendix, suggests that the Hebrew, peten (H6620), comes from a root, to expand the neck [Hebrew, paatan; Greek, puthoon (G4436); Arabic, Baethan]. The Italian Marsi and the Libyan Psylli were expert in snake-taming. Boldness and kindness were probably their art. The words "break their teeth," in Psalms 58:6, are by some referred to the trick of taking out the poison fangs of the serpents; but it refers rather to the teeth of the lions.