Snake

A reptile, often associated with cunning and danger, or occasionally with satanic temptation.

Snakes as crawling reptiles

Genesis 3:14 See also Isaiah 65:25; Micah 7:17

So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life.

Snakes are dangerous

Both to animals and human beings

Genesis 49:17 See also Genesis 3:15; Exodus 4:3, Exodus 7:9–13; Proverbs 23:32; Ecclesiastes 10:8, Ecclesiastes 10:11; Isaiah 30:6; Acts 28:3–6

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.

Some are poisonous

Isaiah 14:29 See also Deuteronomy 8:15, Deuteronomy 32:33; Job 20:14, Job 20:16; Revelation 9:19

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.

They were sometimes used to bring God's judgment

1 Corinthians 10:9 See also Numbers 21:4–6; Amos 5:19, Amos 9:3

We should not test Christ, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes.

They may be overcome

Psalm 91:13 See also Mark 16:18; Luke 10:19

You will tread on the lion and cobra; you will trample the young lion and serpent.

One day they will be rendered harmless

Isaiah 11:8

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

Snakes used symbolically

Of Israel's enemies

See also Isaiah 27:1; Jeremiah 46:22, Jeremiah 51:34

Of cunning and intelligence

Matthew 10:16

Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

Of something harmful

Matthew 7:9–10 parallel Luke 11:11

Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

Of the ungodly

Psalm 58:4–5 See also Psalm 140:3; Matthew 3:7, Matthew 12:34, Matthew 23:33; Romans 3:13

Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like a cobra that shuts its ears, refusing to hear the tune of the charmer who skillfully weaves his spell.

Of Satan

Revelation 12:9 See also Genesis 3:1–13; 2 Corinthians 11:3; Revelation 20:2

And the great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Of salvation

John 3:14–15 See also Numbers 21:7–9; 2 Kings 18:4

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.