Matthew Poole and continuators on Psalms 58:5

5. Which will not hearken to the voyce of charmers, charming never so wisely .

This similitude doth neither justifie the Practise of Charming, which, in the very Word here used is Condemned, Deut. 18. 11. no more than those which are drawn from unjust Steward, Luk. 16. 1. &c. and 18. 2. &c. and from a Thief, Revel. 16. 15. nor yet affirm the Truth of what is Reported, concerning the Asps or Adders, are said to lay one Ear close to the ground, and to cover the other with their Tail, that so they may avoid the Danger of Enchantment; but onely was taken from the common Opinion, which he Poetically mentions to this purpose. As they commonly say of the Asps or Adders, &c. such really are these Men: Deaf to all my Consels, and to the Dictates of their own Consciences, and to the Voyce of Gods Law. And yet of the Charming or inchanting of Serpents, mention is made both in other places of Scripture, as Eccles. 10. 11. Ier. 8. 17. and in all sorts of Authors, Antient and Modern, Hebrew, and Arabick, and Greek and Latin. [Of which see my Latin Synopsis.] And particularly the Arabick Writers (to whom these Creatures were best known) name some sorts of Serpents; among which the Adder is one, which they call Deaf, not because they are dull of Hearing, but, as one of them expressly saith, because they will not be Charmed.

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