1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible

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Deuteronomy 8:15

And was thy leader in the great and terrible wilderness, *wherein there was the serpent burning with his breath, and the scorpion, and the dipsas, and no waters at all: **who brought forth streams out of the hardest rock,

Numbers 20:9.; Numbers 21:6.; Exodus 17:6.

Breath. Hebrew saraphh, or the basilisk, as it is rendered, Isaias 30:6. It destroys both the grass and animals, by the burning infection of its breath. (Galen; Pliny, [Natural History?] 8:19. See Numbers 21:6. (Tirinus) --- Scorpion stings with its tail. --- Dipsas. A serpent whose bite causes a violent thirst: from whence it has its name; for in Greek, dipsa signifies thirst. (Challoner) --- It is impossible to quench this thirst, (Worthington) and those who are bitten by this serpent can discharge no water. (Calmet) --- They drink till they burst, unless they can procure some treacle, or remedy against the poison. (Dioscorides) (Tirinus) --- Some translate the Hebrew, "scorpions, and (at the place of) drought, where there was no water: he brought," etc., whether Tsommaon be the name of a particular place, (Isaias 35:7.; Onkelos; Calmet) or it may be applied to the greatest part of that desert, where the want of water so often occasioned the murmurs of the people. (Haydock)