Ecclesiastes Rabbah 10:11

¹“If the serpent may bite without a spell, there is no advantage to the charmer” (Ecclesiastes 10:11). “If the serpent may bite without a spell [ laḥash ]” – Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: A serpent bites only if it was whispered [ nilḥash ] to from above, and the lion devours only if it was whispered to from above, and a kingdom aggravates people only if it was whispered to from above. Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said: [If] they [would] say to the serpent: ‘Why does your tongue bite one limb, but all of them feel it and tremble,’ it [would] say to them: ‘You are speaking to me? Speak to the one with a tongue.’ ].” The most literal translation of the phrase baal halashon is “one with a tongue.” The term serpent is used here as a reference to one who speaks slander, which causes widespread damage. [If the serpent would be asked:] ‘Why does your tongue slobber,’ [it would say:] ‘Because it caused me [to be punished].’ [If it would be asked:] ‘Why is your body lacking,’ [it would say:] ‘My tongue caused it.’ [If one asked it:] ‘Why does your tongue bite one limb, but all of them feel it and tremble,’ it [would] say to him: ‘You are speaking to me? Speak to the one with a [slanderous] tongue, as he speaks here and kills in Rome, or in Rome and he kills here or at the ends of the earth.’ [If it would be asked:] ‘Why are you found among the fences,’ [it would answer: ‘It is because I breached the fence of the world.’ Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai said: The serpent breached the fence of the world; therefore, he became the executioner for all those who breach a fence. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish taught: When the Holy One blessed be He said to the serpent: “You shall go on your belly” (Genesis 3:14), the ministering angels descended and amputated its hands and its feet, and its voice resonated from one end of the earth to the other. The serpent came and taught about the downfall of Edom, as it is stated: “Its sound will go like the serpent’s” (Jeremiah 46:22). The Rabbis liken it to this verse: “The name of the third river is Tigris” (Genesis 2:14). [If] they [would] ask the Tigris: ‘Why is your sound heard,’ it [would] say to them: ‘If only it would be heard among the rivers.’ [If the rivers would] ask the Euphrates: ‘Why is your sound not heard like our voice is heard,’ it [would] say to them: ‘My actions speak for me. If a person sows vegetable seeds in me, it sprouts in three days; [if one] plants a sapling in me, it sprouts in thirty days.’