What is being crushed that "breaketh out into a viper" in Isaiah 59:5?
Isaiah 59:5
ESV - 5 They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.
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Asked October 16 2019
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Gregory Jones
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Tim Maas
The section of Isaiah from which the verse cited in the question is taken is part of a long presentation of God's grievances against the people of Judah and Jerusalem because of their sins. In the verse cited in the question, God is comparing the effects of their actions to the weaving of a spider's web (which leads to their entrapment in sin), and to the eggs of an adder, which cause harm, no matter how they are treated. (If they are left alone, they hatch into poisonous vipers. If the eggs are eaten, they internally poison the one that consumes them. Even seemingly destroying the eggs by crushing (such as through treading on them) still allows them to crack open, and vipers to come forth from them.)
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