Deuteronomy 32:33

Summary

The verse describes the wine of a group (referred to by the pronominal suffix "their") as being the venom of serpents and the poison of cobras. It uses a metaphor equating a substance consumed ("wine") with lethal animal toxins, closing with the adjective "cruel" describing this poison.

Key words

• cha.Mat ("venom of", H2534) — construct form of a feminine noun, linking it grammatically to the following word "serpents"; construct state means it must be read as "venom of X."
• ta.ni.Nim ("serpents", H8577M) — masculine plural noun, the animal whose venom is referenced; plural indicates a general category rather than one specific creature.
• yei.Na ("wine", H3196) + m ("their", H9028) — the noun "wine" bears a third-person plural pronominal suffix, meaning literally "their wine," attaching the metaphor directly to an unnamed group.
• Rosh ("poison of", H7219) — another construct noun, masculine singular, structurally paralleling cha.Mat in the first half of the verse, creating a two-part poetic parallelism.
• 'akh.Zar ("cruel", H0393) — masculine singular adjective, appearing at the very end of the verse, qualifying the preceding noun phrase "poison of cobras."

What the text says

The verse is built as a bicolon, a common feature of Hebrew poetic parallelism. The first line reads chamat tanninim yeinam — "the venom of serpents [is] their wine" — where chamat ("venom of," H2534) stands in construct relationship with tanninim ("serpents," H8577M), and the resulting phrase functions as the predicate of "their wine" (yeinam, H3196 + H9028). No verb "to be" appears in the Hebrew; the equation between "venom" and "wine" is established purely through juxtaposition, a typical feature of Hebrew nominal clauses.

The second line, ve-rosh petanim akhzar, mirrors the first structurally: rosh ("poison of," H7219) is in construct with petanim ("cobras," H6620), and the adjective akhzar ("cruel," H0393) modifies this entire construct phrase, appearing after the noun it describes, which is standard Hebrew adjective placement following the noun. The two lines together form parallel images: "venom of serpents" parallels "poison of cobras," and the implied "wine" from the first colon carries over conceptually to complete the sense of the second.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders rosh petanim akhzar as θυμὸς ἀσπίδων ἀνίατος ("wrath/fury of asps, incurable"), using θυμὸς ("wrath, fury") rather than a direct term for "poison," and ἀνίατος ("incurable") where the Hebrew has akhzar ("cruel," H0393). The Vulgate uses venenum aspidum insanabile ("incurable venom of asps"), also choosing "incurable" (insanabile) for akhzar, aligning with the LXX's interpretive choice rather than a literal "cruel." The Hebrew akhzar denotes cruelty rather than incurability, showing a semantic shift in both the Greek and Latin traditions at this word.