So then I, the Lord who rules over all, ¹  have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: ²  ‘I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. ³  For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason ⁴  that ungodliness ⁵  has spread throughout the land.’”

The people say, ¹  “Why are we just sitting here? Let us gather together inside the fortified cities. ²  Let us at least die there fighting, ³  since the Lord our God has condemned us to die. He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment ⁴  because we have sinned against him. ⁵ 

and their message will spread its infection ¹  like gangrene. Hymenaeus and Philetus are in this group. ² 

The Lord says, ¹  “Yes indeed, ²  I am sending an enemy against you that will be like poisonous snakes which cannot be charmed away. ³  And they will inflict fatal wounds on you.” ⁴ 

They ¹  sharpen their tongues like a sword; they aim their arrow, a slanderous charge, ² 

And let us not put Christ ¹  to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes. ² 

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and set it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks ¹  at it, he will live.”

and who brought you through the great, fearful desert of venomous serpents ¹  and scorpions, an arid place with no water. He made water flow ²  from a flint rock and

They hatch the eggs of a poisonous snake and spin a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die, a poisonous snake is hatched. ¹ 

Don’t be so happy, all you Philistines, just because the club that beat you has been broken! ¹  For a viper will grow out of the serpent’s root, and its fruit will be a darting adder. ² 

My wounds ¹  are infected and starting to smell, ²  because of my foolish sins. ³ 

He turned their water into blood, and killed their fish.

but in the end ¹  she is bitter ²  as wormwood, ³  sharp as a two-edged ⁴  sword.

For I see that you are bitterly envious ¹  and in bondage to sin.”

Therefore do not let what you consider good ¹  be spoken of as evil.

For the music director; by David. Fools say to themselves, ²  “There is no God.” ³  They sin and commit evil deeds; ⁴  none of them does what is right. ⁵ 

A baby ¹  will play over the hole of a snake; ²  over the nest ³  of a serpent an infant ⁴  will put his hand. ⁵ 

Their tongues are like deadly arrows. ¹  They are always telling lies. ²  Friendly words for their neighbors come from their mouths. But their minds are thinking up ways to trap them. ³ 

(Now ¹  the name of the star is ²  Wormwood.) ³  So ⁴  a third of the waters became wormwood, ⁵  and many people died from these waters because they were poisoned. ⁶ 

He sent swarms of biting insects against them, ¹  as well as frogs that overran their land. ²