Isaiah 59:5

They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

Cockatrice. Probably the basilisk serpent cerastes (cf. note, ). Instead of crushing evil in the egg, they foster it. And weave the spider's web. This reefers not to the spider's web being made to entrap, but to its thinness, as contrasted with substantial "garments," as shows. Their works are vain and transitory (; ).

He that eateth of their eggs dieth - he who partakes in their plans, or has any thing to do with them, finds them pestiferous.

That which is crushed breaketh out into a viper - the egg, when it is broken, breaketh out as a viper; their plans, however specious in their undeveloped form like the egg, are found, when developed, pernicious. Though the viper is viviparous (from which "vi-per" is derived), yet during gestation the young are enclosed in eggs which break at the birth (Bochart); however, metaphors often combine things without representing everything to the life.