Footnotes

1. whisperers (lachash). More dynamically, “charmers,” but the word is onomatopoeia and means to whisper—in this case, to the snake, so as to charm it. ↩

2. binding binds. See note on Dt 18:11, where the root chvr is also used. ↩

3. wisdomously (chakham). While more whimsical, this seems better than “wisely,” which in English does not really capture the sense of doing something with wisdom (i.e., skillfully) so much as due to wisdom. The sense here is not that the charmer is charming the snake out of prudence, but that his whispering that binds it is performed with arcane skill. ↩