59:5 cockatrice. See note on Isaiah 11:8.

59:5 into a viper. The pitiful state of the “Christian evolutionist” is illustrated by the fact that this verse (presenting vipers as hatched from cockatrice’ eggs) is the main proof text he can cite for evolution in the Bible. Actually this verse introduces a depressing catalog of human sinfulness (Isaiah 59:7-15), with Isaiah 59:7-8 later cited by Paul as characteristics of all natural men if they yield to their sinful natures (Romans 3:15-17).