The last proverb of this little series shows the necessity of seizing the right opportunity. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment. The Authorized Version is not quite correct. The particle אם, with which the verse begins, is here conditional, and the rendering should be, If the serpent bite, etc.
; the apodosis comes in the next clause. The idea is taken up from Ecclesiastes 10:8. If one handles a serpent without due precaution or without knowing the secret of charming it, one will suffer for it.
The taming and charming of poisonous snakes is still, as heretofore, practiced in Egypt and the East. What the secret of this power is has not been accurately determined; whether it belongs especially to persons of a certain idiosyncrasy, whether it is connected with certain words or intonations of the voice or musical sounds, we do not know.
Of the existence of the power from remote antiquity there can be no question. Allusions to it in Scripture are common enough (see Exodus 7:11; Psalms 58:5; Jeremiah 8:17; Ecclesiasticus 12:13). If a serpent before it is charmed is dangerous, what then?
The Authorized Version affords no sensible apodosis: And a babbler is no better. The words rendered "babbler" (baal hallashon) are literally "master of the tongue," and by them is meant the ἐπαοιδός, "the serpent-charmer."
The clause should run, Then there is no use in the charmer. If the man is bitten before he has time to use his charm, it is no profit to him that he has the secret, it is too late to employ it when the mischief is done.
This is to shut the stable door after the steed is stolen. The maxim enforces the warning against being too late; the greatest skill is useless unless applied at the right moment. The Septuagint translates virtually as above, "If a serpent bites when not charmed ( ἐν οὐ ψιθυρισμῷ), then there is no advantage to the charmer ( τῷ ἐπᾴδοντι)."
The Vulgate departs from the context, rendering, Si mordeat serpens in silentio (i.e. probably "uncharmed"), nihil eo minus habet qui occulte detrahit, "He is nothing better who slanders secretly," which St.
Jerome thus explains: the serpent and the slanderer are alike, for as the serpent stealthily infuses its poison, so the secret slanderer pours his venom into another's breast.