Genesis 49:17

17. Let Dan become The emphatic position of the verb יחי is best expressed by translating it thus imperatively . And the comparison with the serpent need not be construed as necessarily a curse or condemnation . The account in Judges xviii, of the Danite conquest in the north, illustrates the subtlety and prowess of this tribe; and so, also, does the whole history of Samson . His stratagems to overthrow his enemies might well be compared with the habits of the viper that hides by the wayside, and bites the horse’s heels, and causes him to throw his rider . The horned viper is generally regarded as the cerastes, “the very poisonous horned serpent, which is of the colour of the sand, and as it lies upon the ground merely stretching out its feelers, inflicts a fatal wound upon any who may tread upon it unawares. (Diod. Sic., 3:49; Pliny, 8:23.”) Keil. Comp. also Deuteronomy 33:22.