Ezekiel 14:15

15. Noisome beasts Remembering that serpents, according to Scripture language, were included among these “hurtful beasts” (Genesis 3:14), it is a suggestive circumstance that over twenty thousand people die in India every year of snake bite, notwithstanding the excessive population and the carefulness of British officials, and notwithstanding the fact that the government kills five hundred thousand of these reptiles every year ( Victoria Institute, 26:89, 111). In Syria, where the serpent was reverenced as possessing superhuman powers, its ability to “bereave” the land would be great.