Topic
Serpent-Charming
5 passages cited, from 1 classic reference work.
These works date from 1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Psalms 58:5ISBE
Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
- Ecclesiastes 10:11ISBE
Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.
- Jeremiah 8:17ISBE
For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.
- Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 12:13ISBE
Who will pity a charmer that is bitten with a serpent, or any such as come nigh wild beasts?
- James 3:7ISBE
For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 5 references
-charm'-ing: Allusion to this art, widely practiced by the ancients (see references in DB, under the word; especially Bothart, Hieron., III, 161, 164, etc.), as by modern Orientals, is found in Ps 58:5; Ec 10:11; Jer 8:17; Sirach 12:13, perhaps in Jas 3:7. The skill displayed in taming snakes, often without removing the poison fangs, is very surprising. Bruce, Davy, and other travelers give striking illustrations. See especially the interesting account of serpent-charming in Hengstenberg's Egypt and the Books of Moses, English Translation, 100-104.
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.