In verses 5-6 snakes and spiders are used metaphorically to illustrate the actions of the people who abuse the justice system to hurt others. This results in a highly picturesque description. The metaphor concerning the eggs of poisonous snakes portrays something dangerous, while the metaphor of the spider’s web refers to something of little substance and useless.
Verse 5 opens by mentioning snakes’ eggs and a spider’s web, and then each of these metaphors is developed respectively in verse 5b and verse 6a. Good News Translation combines these verses to keep each metaphor separate. However, it is possible to do this without combining the verses by placing the second line of verse 5 concerning the spider’s web at the end of the verse (see the second example below). This is what Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch does.
They hatch adders’ eggs is literally “They break open serpents’ eggs.” The pronoun They refers to the evil people described in verse 4. The Hebrew verb for hatch is used with this same sense in 34.15. It refers to the moment when the eggs break open and the young ones come out. The Hebrew word rendered adder refers to a specific type of poisonous snake, the cobra (see the comments on 14.29). If a language does not have a specific word for this snake, translators may use a general expression for snakes, especially poisonous ones. In many cultures every snake is assumed to be poisonous. The implication of the metaphor here is that the people plan and devise plots that they intend will cause harm. Good News Translation clarifies this metaphor by saying “The evil plots you make are as deadly as the eggs of a poisonous snake.” Bible en français courant is similar with “Your plans are as harmful as the eggs of a snake,” and so is Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch with “Your plans are as deadly as the eggs of a poisonous snake.”
They weave the spider’s web is another metaphor describing the unjust people. There seem to be two implications here. First, the plans these people conceive are as useless as a spider’s web (see verse 6). Second, their plans are dangerous, because they entrap people in the same way a spider’s web traps insects. This line may be rendered as a simile by saying “They are like spiders that weave their webs.”
He who eats their eggs dies refers to the snakes’ eggs mentioned in the first line. Whether eating a snake’s egg, even if it comes from a poisonous snake, can actually cause death is not the point here. The prophet links the snakes and their eggs to create a picture of something poisonous and thus life threatening. It is a metaphor of deadly danger to people.
And from one which is crushed a viper is hatched: If one of the cobras’ eggs is broken open, a viper, which is another type of poisonous snake, will come out. This is another metaphor signifying grave danger. One which is crushed may be rendered “a broken egg.” For viper see the comments on 30.6. Is hatched renders the same Hebrew verb as in the first line. Translators do not need to look for formal equivalents to each word in this line, but they should look for a natural rendering that expresses the metaphor clearly and suggests the deadly danger that is implied; for example, Bible en français courant has “the egg is barely open when a viper comes out of it.”
Translation examples for this verse are:
• They hatch cobras’ eggs
and spin spiders’ webs.
Anyone who eats the cobras’ eggs will die,
and from a broken egg a viper will emerge.
• They hatch snakes’ eggs,
and anyone eating the eggs will die,
and from a broken egg a viper will emerge.
They also spin spiders’ webs.
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .