Ecclesiastes 10:11 - Revised Standard Version (RSV-CI)

¹¹ If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage in a charmer.

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

¹¹ Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

¹¹ If the serpent bites before it is charmed, then it is no use to call a charmer [and the slanderer is no better than the uncharmed snake].

American Standard Version (1901)

¹¹ If the serpent bite before it is charmed, then is there no advantage in the charmer.

Common English Bible

¹¹ If a snake bites before it’s charmed, then there’s no profit for the snake charmer.

Catholic Public Domain Version

¹¹ Whoever slanders in secret is nothing less than a snake that bites silently.

Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version

¹¹ If a serpent bite in silence, he is nothing better that backbiteth secretly.

Ecclesiastes 10:11 Cross References

Psalm 52:2

you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.

Psalm 58:6

O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!

Psalm 64:3

who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows,

Proverbs 18:21

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Ecclesiastes 10:10

If the iron is blunt, and one does not whet the edge, he must put forth more strength; but wisdom helps one to succeed.

Jeremiah 8:17

For behold, I am sending among you serpents, adders which cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you,” says the Lord.

James 3:6

And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell.

James 3:8

but no human being can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison.