Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks—"a quantity of dry sticks." The vigorous activity of Paul's character is observable in this comparatively trifling action [WEBSTER and WILKINSON].
and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat—Having laid itself up among the sticks on the approach of the cold winter season, it had suddenly recovered from its torpor by the heat.
and fastened—its fangs.
on his hand—Vipers dart at their enemies sometimes several feet at a bound. They have now disappeared from Malta, owing to the change which cultivation has produced.
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