ADDER ăd’ ər (פֶּ֫תֶן, H7352, a poisonous snake). This is tr. “adder” (Ps 58:4, 91:13; KJV and RSV, but “asp” (q.v.) in four other passages. This is prob. the cobra.

Heb. (צִפְעֹנִי, H7626, a poisonous snake). KJV tr. “adder” once and “cockatrice” four times. RSV tr. “adder” throughout. Like the other words this is found only in fig. passages and precise identification is impossible. This is true also of Heb. (צֶ֫פַע, H7625, Isa 14:29 KJV) tr. “cockatrice.”

Heb. (שְׁפִיפֹן, H9159, a poisonous snake). This is found only once (Gen 49:17) but the context is more helpful: “Dan shall be an adder in the path” (KJV); “a viper by the path (RSV), that bites the horses’ heels,” KJVmg. “arrowsnake.” This description would fit one of the sand vipers that lies hidden in the sand and strikes out at any large animal that disturbs it.

These three words are all to some extent onomatopoeic, for they suggest both the hissing so characteristic of some vipers and also the noise made by rubbing together the rough, keeled scales that give one of the desert vipers the name of saw-scaled viper. (See [http://biblegateway/wiki/Serpent (Fiery Serpent) SERPENT].) A sand viper was, in fact, the origin of the hieroglyph “F” in ancient Egypt.