¹⁷ See, I am letting snakes loose among you,
    adders that cannot be charmed,
    and they shall bite you,
            says the Lord.^(A)

¹¹ If the snake bites before it is charmed,
    there is no advantage in a charmer.^(A)

⁴ They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
    like the deaf adder that stops its ear,^(A)
5 so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
    or of the cunning enchanter.^(B)

²⁴ wasting hunger,
    burning consumption,
    bitter pestilence.
The teeth of beasts I will send against them,
    with venom of things crawling in the dust.^(A)

³ Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
    from there I will search out and take them;
and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
    there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.^(A)

¹⁹     as if someone fled from a lion
    and was met by a bear
or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall
    and was bitten by a snake.^(A)