The asp

(Gen. 49:17) — a horned, venomous serpent with white and black spots, whose venom is very sharp and kills almost instantly; it is sand-colored, hides in the deep ruts left by cart wheels, and from there bites the unwary traveler or his horse. “Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels,” says Jacob in his prophetic deathbed blessing of his children, “so that his rider shall fall backward.” “Adders’ poison is under their lips,” says the psalmist (Ps. 139 [140]:3), pointing thereby to the malice of the wicked.

A child’s playing over the den of so venomous a creature might be extremely foolish and dangerous, and it is for this reason that the following figurative expression of the prophet Isaiah is marked by such particular power and beauty: “And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den” (Isa. 11:8) — an expression vividly conveying the peace and safety of the kingdom of the Messiah. The psalmist points to a particular species of asp — the “deaf adder which stoppeth her ear” (Ps. 58 [57]:4 [5]), that is, a serpent that does not move and is not charmed by the sound of music.

It is thought that the most venomous species of asp is meant here. Other kinds of serpents are often charmed by the sound of music and become tame, as may still be seen today in the bazaars of India or Egypt; but the deaf adder is not so — it is deaf to everything, which evidently points to the extreme degree of hardness of a man’s heart.