He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
He will drink the poison of deadly snakes: the viper's bite will kill him.
The writer is saying that those who do evil will ultimately be destroyed by their own wickedness.
📚 Historical Context
In the Book of Job, this verse is part of Zophar's second speech, where he responds to Job's suffering by insisting that the wicked will inevitably face God's judgment, even if they experience temporary success. Zophar uses the metaphor of sucking asp poison and being slain by a viper's tongue to symbolize how evil actions lead to self-destruction, drawing from ancient Near Eastern cultural views where snakes represented deadly peril and divine retribution. This reflects the broader biblical emphasis on the certainty of God's justice in a world where the righteous often question why the wicked seem to prosper.
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