Poison

Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types

 Deuteronomy 32:33 (a) The terrible story in this verse is to reveal to us that the vine planted by our Lord, which should have produced lovely grapes, was really bringing forth poisonous liquor, such as the wickedness and evil of Sodom. GOD expected Israel to bring forth good grapes, fragrant flowers, and the sweet graces of Heaven. Instead of this, Israel produced hatred, idolatry and lust. See His description of this in isa5.

 Job 6:4 (a) Job thus describes the sorrow of his heart and the distress of his spirit because of what he thought was GOD's wrath against him. He could not understand why GOD would thus deal with him when he knew very well he had lived a godly, consistent life. He did not know that his afflictions came from Satan.

 Job 20:16 (a) Zophar is telling Job that the reason he is having all these sorrows is because he has been a wicked man. He is comparing Job's troubles to the poison of serpents, which was of course absolutely untrue.

 Psalm 58:4 (a) This figure represents the evil words and teachings of the ungodly hypocrite. That which the hypocrite says and does influences for evil those who listen to him. It really refers to the teachings of false religious leaders. (See also  Psalm 140:3).

 Romans 3:13 (a) By this we understand that the messages that issued from the lips of ungodly teachers who are leaders of false religions are evil poison. He is also telling us that evil speaking of any kind only hurts, damages and injures those who hear such messages. (See also  James 3:8).

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Chemah , from a root "to be hot" ( Deuteronomy 32:24;  Deuteronomy 32:33,).  Psalms 58:4;  Psalms 140:3, "of serpents." In  Job 6:4 allusion is made to poisoned arrows, symbolizing the burning pains which penetrated into Job's inmost parts ("Spirit" As Contrasted With Surface Flesh Wounds Of His Body) . Pliny (xi. 115) mentions that the Scythians poisoned their arrows with viper's venom mixed with human blood; a scratch of such arrows proved fatal. Also Arab pirates on the Red Sea used poisoned arrows ( Texicon , Or Toxicum From Toxon A "Bow", Became The Term For Poison, So Common Was The Usage) . The Jews never adopted the barbarous custom. Ro'Sh ;  Deuteronomy 32:32;  Deuteronomy 29:18;  Psalms 69:21;  Lamentations 3:19;  Amos 6:12. (See Gall .);  Jeremiah 8:14 margin.

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

The poison referred to in  Romans 3:13,  James 3:8 is animal, not vegetable. From the first the Hebrews had been but little interested in the medicinal, military, or malicious use of poisons. Their experience of venomous reptiles had furnished them with a vivid symbol of sin (cf.  Numbers 21:6-9,  Deuteronomy 8:15,  John 3:14,  Psalms 58:4;  Psalms 140:3). The NT singles out for mention the part of the body which corresponds to the serpent’s weapon of attack, the mouth, i.e. the lips and tongue. Here the poison is concentrated and active. Attention is directed to the stored-up venom which awaits its chance to inject itself into its victim, the insidiousness and sting of the attack, the fierce and uncontrollable pain, the violence and deadliness which mark its effects.

C. A. Beckwith.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( v. i.) To act as, or convey, a poison.

(2): ( n.) Any agent which, when introduced into the animal organism, is capable of producing a morbid, noxious, or deadly effect upon it; as, morphine is a deadly poison; the poison of pestilential diseases.

(3): ( n.) To injure or kill by poison; to administer poison to.

(4): ( n.) To taint; to corrupt; to vitiate; as, vice poisons happiness; slander poisoned his mind.

(5): ( n.) To put poison upon or into; to infect with poison; as, to poison an arrow; to poison food or drink.

(6): ( n.) That which taints or destroys moral purity or health; as, the poison of evil example; the poison of sin.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Ἰός (Strong'S #2447 — Noun Masculine — ios — ee-os' )

denotes "something active" as (a) "rust," as acting on metals, affecting their nature,  James 5:3; (b) "poison," as of asps, acting destructively on living tissues, figuratively of the evil use of the lips as the organs of speech,  Romans 3:13; so of the tongue,  James 3:8 .

Easton's Bible Dictionary

In   Romans 3:13 (Compare   Job 20:16;  Psalm 140:3 ),  James 3:8 , as the rendering of the Greek ios.

Copyright Statement These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., DD Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography Information Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Poison'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/p/poison.html. 1897.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

The poison of serpents and of asps is used in scripture symbolically for the judgement of God and for the malignity inherent in the wicked.  Deuteronomy 32:24,33;  Job 6:4;  Job 20:16;  Psalm 58:4;  Psalm 140:3;  Romans 3:13 . The tongue is "an unruly evil, full of deadly poison."  James 3:8 .  Job 6:4 apparently alludes to arrows being poisoned.

King James Dictionary

Poison n. poiz'n. L. pus.

1. A substance which, when taken into the stomach,mixed with the blood or applied to the skin or flesh, proves fatal or deleterious by an action not mechanical venom. The more active and virulent poisons destroy life in a short time others are slow in their operation, others produce inflammation without proving fatal. In the application of poison, much depends on the quantity. 2. Any thing infectious, malignant, or noxious to health as the poison of pestilential diseases. 3. That which taints or destroys moral purity or health as the poison of evil example the poison of sin.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Deuteronomy 32:32-33 Job 20:16 Psalm 58:4 Psalm 140:3 Hosea 10:4 Amos 6:12  Jeremiah 8:14

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

is the rendering in the A. V. of the Bible of two Hebrew and two Greek terms, but they are so general as to throw little light upon the knowledge and practice of poisons among the Hebrews.

1. חֵמָה , Chemaih, from the root signifying "to be hot," is used of the heat produced by wine ( Hosea 7:5), and the hot passion of anger ( Deuteronomy 29:27, etc.), as well as of the burning venom of poisonous serpents ( Deuteronomy 32:24;  Deuteronomy 32:33;  Psalms 58:4;  Psalms 140:3). In all cases it denotes animal poison, and nut vegetable or mineral. The only allusion to its application is in  Job 6:4, where reference seems to be made to the custom of anointing arrows with the venom of a snake, a practice the origin of which is of very remote antiquity (comp. Homer, Od. 1, 261, 262; Ovid, Trist. 3, 10, 64; Fast. 5, 397, etc.; Pliny, 18:1). The Soanes, a Caucasian race mentioned by Strabo (11, 499), were especially skilled in the art. Pliny (6, 34) mentions a tribe of Arab pirates who infested the Red Sea, and were armed with poisoned arrows like the Malays of the coast of Borneo. For this purpose the berries of the yew-tree (Pliny, 16:20) were employed. The Gauls (Pliny, 27:76) used a poisonous herb, limeum, supposed by some to be the "leopard's bane," and the Scythians dipped their arrow-points in vipers' venom mixed with human blood. These were so deadly that a slight scratch inflicted by them was fatal (Pliny, 11:115). The practice was so common that the name Τοξικόν , originally a poison in which arrows were dipped, was applied to poison generally. (See Arrow). In Palestine and the countries adjacent were many venomous snakes, as well as insects, such as the scorpion and the scolopendra; but no such practice obtained among the Jews. Poisonous plants were as well known as in other countries, and we have an instance of a miracle wrought by Elisha ( 2 Kings 4:38), to prevent mischief by the accidental shredding of a wild gourd into a mess of pottage prepared for the sons of the prophets. This fruit or vegetable was probably the colocynth; and when those who were about to partake of it were repelled by its nauseous bitterness, the prophet commanded a handful of meal to be thrown into the pot, and thus rendered its contents fit for human food. (See Gourd).

2. ראֹשׁ (once רוֹשׁ ,  Deuteronomy 32:32), Rosh, if a poison at all, denotes a vegetable poison primarily, and is only twice ( Deuteronomy 32:33;  Job 20:16) used of the venom of a serpent. In other passages where it occurs it is translated "gall" in the A. V., except in  Hosea 10:4 where it is rendered " ‘ hemlock." In the margin of  Deuteronomy 29:18 our translators, feeling the uncertainty of the word, gave as an alternative " Rosh, or, A Poisonful Herb. " Beyond the fact that, whether poisonous or not, it was a plant of bitter taste, nothing can be inferred. That bitterness was its prevailing characteristic is evident from its being associated with wormwood ( Deuteronomy 29:18 [17];  Lamentations 3:19;  Amos 6:12), and from the allusions to "water of rosh" in  Jeremiah 8:14;  Jeremiah 9:15;  Jeremiah 23:15. It was not a juice or liquid ( Psalms 69:21 [22]; comp.  Mark 15:23), but probably a bitter berry, in which case the expression in  Deuteronomy 32:32, "grapes of Rosh," may be taken literally. It grew in the fields ( Hosea 10:4), was bitter to the taste ( Jeremiah 23:15;  Psalms 69:22; comp.  Lamentations 3:5), and bore clusters, perhaps something like the Belladonna ( Deuteronomy 32:32.

Yet here the words עַנְּבֵי רוֹשׁ might also be rendered Poison Grapes, carrying out the figure of the vine, without special allusion to the poison plant). Any special rendering which would suit all the passages is uncertain, since all the old translators have but general expressions (Sept. Χολή , Vulg. Jel, or else some word meaning bitter; yet in the passage from Hosea 1 . c. Ἄγρωστις , Ven. MS. Τιθύμαλος ) , and there is no kindred word found in the other dialects to compare. Oedmanu (4, 83 sq.) referred the word to the poisonous colocynth (Cucumis Colocynthi, Linn.), which grows almost everywhere in Arabia and Palestine; a plant with a creeping stem, bright green leaves, and bears a fruit with a strangely bitter juice (Fabri Evagat. 2, 417 sq.). But this fruit is not a berry, but an apple, of the size of the closed hand; nor does the colocynth shoot up among the grain. Michaelis (Fragm. etc., p. 145) would understand the hyoscyamus or the darmnel (Lolium temulentum). (But see Oedmann. ut stp. p. 85.) This meaning suits the passage in Hosea well (Rosenm Ü ller, Alterth. 4, 1, 118), but not that in  Deuteronomy 32:32; nor does the lolium produce so active a poison that it could be mentioned by way of eminence in these passages. Indeed, many moderns disbelieve its poisonous properties entirely. Celsius (Lierobot. 2, 46 sq.) explains Rosh of the Cicuta or Hemlock, but is opposed by Michaelis and Oedmann (ut sup. p. 84). Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 1281), on the ground that the word in Hebrew also signifies "head," rejects the hemlock, colocynth and darnel of other writers, and proposes the "poppy" instead (comp. Livy, 1, 54, Papaverum capita, Papaver somnifelrum), from the "heads" in which its seeds are contained, and from which the Orientals have extracted opium from a remote antiquity. This was known to the ancients to be poisonous, when taken in excess (Pliny, 20:76). But it may be doubted whether the poppy could be so directly and pre-eminently styled the poison plant (it was even placed on the table as a sidedish, Pliny, 19:53); and if rosh had denoted a plant so well known, surely some one of the old interpreters would have discovered it. "Water of rosh" would thus be simply ‘ opium;" but it must be admitted that there appears in none of the above passages to be any allusion to the characteristic effects of opium. The effects of the rosh are simply nausea and loathing. It was probably a general term for any bitter or nauseous plant, whether poisonous or not, and became afterwards applied to the venom of snakes, as the corresponding word in Chaldee is frequently so used. (See Hemlock).

3. Ι᾿Ός , strictly something Emitted, as a missile weapon; hence the venom of a serpent ( James 3:8;  Romans 3:13). (See Serpent).

4. Φάρμακον , prop. Medicine, hence often a deadly potion. There is a clear case of suicide by poison related in  2 Maccabees 10:13, where Ptolemaeus Macron is said to have destroyed himself by this means. But we do not find a trace of it among the Jews, and certainly poisoning in any form was not in favor with them. Nor is there any reference to it in the N.T., though the practice was fatally common at that time in Rome (Sueton. Nero, 33, 34, 35; T Ü b. 73; Claud. 1). It has been suggested, indeed, that the Φαρμακεία of  Galatians 5:20 (A. V. "witchcraft") signifies poisoning, but this is by no means consistent with the usage of the word in the Sept. (comp.  Exodus 7:11;  Exodus 8:7;  Exodus 8:18. etc.), and with its occurrence in  Revelation 9:21, where it denotes a crime clearly distinguished from murder (see  Revelation 21:8;  Revelation 22:15). It more probably refers to the concoction of magical potions and love philters. (See Witchcraft). The reference in  Mark 16:18 seems to be to the custom of condemnation to death by means of poison ( Κώνειον , Plato, Lys. 219; Plutarch, Phoc. c. 36; Diog. Laert. 2, 42; Ael. V. H. 1, 16; 9:21; comp. J. Jac. Bose, De Potionibus Mortiferis, Lips. 1736). We read in  2 Maccabees 10:13 of an example of suicide by poison (comp. Bose, iss. p. 25 sq.). The administration of poisons seems to have been no unusual crime in the days of the apostles (see Winer, Ad Gtlat. p. 125; comp. Philo, Op. 2. 315 sq.), and the Arabian women were especially famous for their skill in preparing them (Joseph. Ant. 17:4, 1; comp. Rein, Romr. Criminahlecht, p. 427 sq.). But in the New Testament the words Φαρμακεία and Φαρμακεύς do not refer to this, but to necromancy (q.v.). On poisoned arrows, see Bow. Swords were sometimes also dipped in poison (Curt. 9, 8, 20). (See Myrrh).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

poi´z ' n ( חמה , ḥēmāh , ראשׁ , rō'sh  ; θυμός , thumós , ἰός , iós ): Residents in Palestine must, from the first, have been acquainted with venomous serpents. Six species of these are widely diffused in the land, and at least three of them are fairly common in places. Besides, there are scorpions, centipedes and the large spider, which are as much dreaded by the fellahin as are the serpents, not to speak of the minor but very serious discomforts of mosquitoes, sandflies and ticks, some of which were credited with lethal powers. In The Wisdom of   Song of Solomon 16:9 the Revised Version (British and American) we read that "the bites of locusts and flies did slay, and there was not found a healing for their life." There are also many poisonous plants, such as belladonna, henbane, thorn apple, and the opium poppy. None of these is mentioned in the Bible; the only names found there are the hemlock ( Conium maculatum ) of   Hosea 10:4 , the poisonous gourd ( Citrullus colocynthis ) of  2 Kings 4:39 , and the grapes of gall, probably the fruit of Calotropis procera , the apples of Sodom of Josephus ( BJ , IV, viii, 4). Some, however, believe that these are poppyheads. Poisonous waters are referred to at Marah ( Exodus 15:23 ) and Jericho ( 2 Kings 2:19 ). There are no direct records of any person dying of poison except in 2 Macc 10:13, where the suicide of Ptolemy Macron is related. our Lord's promise in the appendix to  Mark 16:18 shows, however, that poisons were known and might be administered by way of ordeal, as was the unknown "water of jealousy" (  Numbers 5:17 ). In this connection the story in Eusebius ( Historia Ecclesiastica , III, 39) is interesting, that "Justus surnamed Barsabbas, though he drank a deadly poison, suffered no injury, through the grace of the Lord." The passages in which poisonous serpents are mentioned are  Deuteronomy 32:24 , where serpents (the Revised Version (British and American) "crawling things") of the dust, probably Cerastes hasselquistii , the little horned vipers, are mentioned, and in  Deuteronomy 32:33 : "poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps." The asp may be the cobra Naia haje , not uncommon on the borders of the wilderness to the South.  Psalm 58:4 mentions the poison of serpents.   Psalm 140:3 , "They have sharpened their tongue like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips," indicates, what is still a common belief, that the forked tongue of the snake is the poison-bearer. This is referred to in  James 3:8 . That it was the fang and not the tongue which carried the poison was known to Pliny (xi. 62). This verse of  Psalm 140:1-13 is given in Paul's composite quotation in   Romans 3:13 . There may be a reference to the giving of an intoxicant poison in  Habakkuk 2:15 , where the Revised Version (British and American) reads "that addest thy venom." The prophets speak in several places of God's wrath as a cup of trembling (the Revised Version (British and American) "staggering"), e.g.  Isaiah 51:17 ,  Isaiah 51:22 , probably suggested by the fact that ḥēmāh primarily means "fury" and is used in that sense in more than a hundred passages. In  Zechariah 12:2 Jerusalem is to be such a "cup of reeling unto all the peoples round about."

The semāmith , "lizard" (the King James Version "spider"), mentioned in   Proverbs 30:28 Septuagint kalabṓtēs ) was formerly regarded as poisonous and it is still much disliked by the fellahin, as they believe that it makes mocking gestures mimicking them at their prayers. They are really not poisonous. It is doubtful whether the lizard mentioned by Agur is really this stellion; the description better fits the gecko.