I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Your descendants and her descendants will be enemies. One of her descendants will crush your head, and you will bite his heel.”

When Esau heard the words of his father, he let out a loud and bitter cry. He said to his father, “Bless me—me, too, my father!”

Dan will be like a snake by the side of the road, a dangerous snake lying near the path. That snake bites a horse’s leg, and the rider is thrown off backward.

When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan River, they cried loudly and bitterly for his father. Joseph’s time of sorrow continued for seven days.

They made their lives bitter. They forced the Israelites to work hard to make bricks and mortar and to do all kinds of work in the fields. The Egyptians were not merciful to them in all their painful work.

On this night they must roast the lamb over a fire. They must eat it with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast.

Bitter Water Becomes Good

Moses led the Israelites away from the Red Sea into the Desert of Shur. They traveled for three days in the desert but found no water.

Then they came to Marah, where there was water, but they could not drink it because it was too bitter. (That is why the place was named Marah.)

The priest will make the woman stand before the Lord, and he will loosen her hair. He will hand her the offering of remembrance, the grain offering for jealousy; he will hold the bitter water that brings a curse.

The priest will make her take an oath and ask her, “Has another man had sexual relations with you? Have you been unfaithful to your husband? If you haven’t, this bitter water that brings a curse won’t hurt you.

“‘The priest should write these curses on a scroll, wash the words off into the bitter water,

and make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse. If she is guilty, the water will make her sick.

But celebrate it at twilight on the fourteenth day of the second month. Eat the lamb with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast.

So the Lord sent them poisonous snakes; they bit the people, and many of the Israelites died.

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a bronze snake, and put it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, that person will live.”

So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Then when a snake bit anyone, that person looked at the bronze snake and lived.

Make sure no man, woman, family group, or tribe among you leaves the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. They would be to you like a plant that grows bitter, poisonous fruit.

Their vine comes from Sodom, and their fields are like Gomorrah. Their grapes are full of poison; their bunches of grapes are bitter.

‘May the town of Meroz be cursed,’ said the angel of the Lord. ‘Bitterly curse its people, because they did not come to help the Lord. They did not fight the strong enemy.’

Because you rage against me, and because I have heard your proud words, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth. Then I will force you to leave my country the same way you came.’

Ezrah’s sons were Jether, Mered, Epher, and Jalon. Mered married Bithiah, the daughter of the king of Egypt. The children of Mered and Bithiah were Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah. Ishbah was the father of Eshtemoa. Mered also had a wife from Judah, who gave birth to Jered, Heber, and Jekuthiel. Jered became the father of Gedor. Heber became the father of Soco. And Jekuthiel became the father of Zanoah.

“My complaint is still bitter today. I groan because God’s heavy hand is on me.

Evil people have surrounded me; like dogs they have trapped me. They have bitten my arms and legs.

So don’t be like a horse or donkey, that doesn’t understand. They must be led with bits and reins, or they will not come near you.”

You love words that bite and tongues that lie.