Viper

An extremely poisonous snake often linked to danger, found in deserts and grasslands.

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Viper

About Viper

A viper is a poisonous snake with long, hollow fangs for injecting venom.

In the Bible, the word “viper” can refer to the same kinds of venomous snakes as the word “adder.” Different Bible translations sometimes use one term or the other for the same snake (Matthew 3:7; Acts 28:3). These snakes can deliver a dangerous or deadly bite.

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The animal itself Article

Habits, distribution, and how translators render the term across languages.

Key References

Genesis 49:17

He will be a snake by the road, a viper in the path that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward.

Numbers 21:6

So the LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died.

Matthew 3:7

But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

All Scripture References (11)

Genesis (1)
Genesis 49:17

He will be a snake by the road, a viper in the path that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward.

Numbers (2)
Numbers 21:6

So the LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died.

Numbers 21:8

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.”

Deuteronomy (1)
Deuteronomy 8:15

He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.

Job (1)
Job 20:16

He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill him.

Proverbs (1)
Proverbs 23:32

In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.

Isaiah (4)
Isaiah 11:8

The infant will play by the cobra’s den, and the toddler will reach into the viper’s nest.

Isaiah 14:29

Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken. For a viper will spring from the root of the snake, and a flying serpent from its egg.

Isaiah 30:6

This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.

Isaiah 59:5

They hatch the eggs of vipers and weave a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched.

Jeremiah (1)
Jeremiah 8:17

“For behold, I will send snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” declares the LORD.