Luke 11:12
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion.... Of which there are three sorts; some are terrestrial, or land scorpions, scorpions of the earth, a kind of serpents, very venomous and mischievous, to whom the wicked Jews are compared, Ezekiel 2:6 and the locusts in Revelation 9:3 others are airy, or flying scorpions, a sort of fowl; and others are sea scorpions; of the fish kind: it is not easy to say which of them is here meant. There is an herb which is called Nynbrqe {n}, "the scorpion": it leaves are like unto a scorpion, as the Jewish commentators say {o}. This is observed with the same view as the former. By it may be meant here, either the fish that is so called, since a fish is mentioned before; or rather, the land scorpion, which is of the serpent kind; this brings forth little worms, in the form of eggs, as {p} Pliny says: and it is said, that a scorpion put into an empty eggshell, has been used to be given to persons, whose death has been desired; which it bursting from, at once strikes and kills: but what father would do so to a child!
{n} Misn. Erubin, c. 2. sect. 6.
{o} Maimon. & Bartonora in lb,
{p} Lib. 11. c. 25.