Job 20:16

What does Job 20:16 mean?

Bildad (Job's friend) is describing what happens to the wicked, using vivid imagery from the natural world to show how their own choices destroy them. The cobra and viper represent danger that someone brings upon themselves, either through deliberate wrongdoing or refusal to listen to wisdom. The poison becomes fatal because the person keeps pursuing the same destructive path, unable or unwilling to turn back. It's a way of saying that sin and stubbornness have built-in consequences, like drinking something that was always poisonous.