Cockatrice

The cockatrice is a translation used in the King James Version for the Hebrew tsepha or tsiphoni, a venomous serpent of uncertain species. Modern translations render the term as viper, adder, or simply serpent. The Authorized Version uses cockatrice — a legendary creature believed to be hatched from a serpent's egg and capable of killing by its glance — to convey the deadly nature of the reptile intended. Easton notes that the term refers to a species of dangerous snake, likely a viper or horned cerastes.

The cockatrice appears in several prophetic passages. Isaiah uses it in his vision of messianic peace, where the weaned child shall put its hand over the den of the cockatrice without harm (Isaiah 11:8), and warns that from the root of the serpent shall come forth a cockatrice (Isaiah 14:29). Jeremiah employs the image as a threat of divine judgment: God will send serpents and cockatrices among the people that will bite them (Jeremiah 8:17). In each case the creature functions as an image of lethal danger, whether for judgment or for describing the transformed world of the messianic age.