'Serpent' in the Bible

Now the serpent was more crafty (subtle, skilled in deceit) than any living creature of the field which the Lord God had made. And the serpent (Satan) said to the woman, “Can it really be that God has said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden,

But the serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die!

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent beguiled and deceived me, and I ate [from the forbidden tree].”

The Lord God said to the serpent,“Because you have done this,You are cursed more than all the cattle,And more than any animal of the field;On your belly you shall go,And dust you shall eatAll the days of your life.

“Dan shall be a [venomous] serpent in the way,A fanged snake in the path,That bites the horse’s heels,So that his rider falls backward.

Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a [living] serpent [like the royal symbol on the crown of Pharaoh]; and Moses ran from it.

“When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Work a miracle [to prove your authority],’ then you say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, so that it may become a serpent.’”

So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and did just as the Lord had commanded; Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.

Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going out to the water, and wait for him on the bank of the Nile; and you shall take in your hand the staff that was turned into a serpent.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent [of bronze] and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten will live when he looks at it.”

So Moses made a serpent of bronze and put it on the pole, and it happened that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.

He removed the high places [of pagan worship], broke down the images (memorial stones) and cut down the Asherim. He also crushed to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the Israelites had burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan [a bronze sculpture].

“By His breath the heavens are cleared;His hand has pierced the [swiftly] fleeing serpent.

Their poison is like the venom of a serpent;They are like the deaf horned viper that stops up its ear,

You will tread upon the lion and cobra;The young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

At the last it bites like a serpentAnd stings like a viper.

The way of an eagle in the air,The way of a serpent on a rock,The way of a ship in the middle of the sea,And the way of a man with a maid.

He who digs a pit [for others] may fall into it, and a serpent may bite him who breaks through a [stone] wall.

If the serpent bites before being charmed, then there is no profit for the charmer.

“Do not rejoice, O Philistia, any of you,Because the rod [of Judah] that struck you is broken;For out of the serpent’s root will come a viper [King Hezekiah of Judah],And its offspring will be a flying serpent.

In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpentWith His fierce and great and mighty sword [rescuing Israel from her enemy],Even Leviathan the twisted serpent;And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

A [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning the beasts of the Negev (the South):Through a land of trouble and anguish,From where come lioness and lion, viper and [fiery] flying serpent,They carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeysAnd their treasures on the humps of camels,To a people (Egyptians) who cannot benefit them.

“The sound [of Egypt fleeing from the enemy] is like [the rustling of] an escaping serpent,For her foes advance with a mighty armyAnd come against her like woodcutters with axes.

It is as if a man runs from a lion [escaping one danger]And a bear meets him [so he dies anyway],Or goes home, and leans with his hand against the wallAnd a snake bites him.

“Though they hide on the summit of [Mount] Carmel,I will track them down and take them from there;And though they hide from My sight on the floor of the sea,From there I shall command the serpent and it will bite them.

They shall lick the dust like a serpent;Like crawling things of the earthThey shall come trembling out of their fortresses and hiding places.They shall turn and come with fear and dread to the Lord our GodAnd they shall be afraid and stand in awe before You [O Lord].