Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a
scorpion
&c.] 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 Revelation
9:5 ) 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) F14, "the
scorpion": it leaves are like unto a scorpion, as the Jewish
commentators say F15. 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 F16 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!