창세기 49:17 해설: Rashi, Chizkuni, Ramban & Rashbam

שפיפן is another name for a נחש. I am of opinion that it is thus called because it hisses (נושף) when biting. Similarly we have, (Genesis 3:15) “and thou shalt bite (תשיפנו) at their heel” (cf. Rashi thereon).

יהי דן נחש, “may Dan be like a snake lying in ambush on the way” to kill potential attackers of the gentile nations; his bravery will use the most unlikely weapons, such as when Samson used a jawbone to kill 1000 Philistines (Judges 15,16.)

SH’PHIPHON (SERPENT)¹⁹²Verse 17 here: Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a ‘sh’phiphon’ on the path, that biteth the horse in the heels, so that his rider falleth backward. is the name of a snake which bites at the heel, with the second root-letter¹⁹³Namely, the pei. being doubled.¹⁹⁴Ramban is suggesting that the root of sh’phipon is shapha which means “hissing while biting,” except that the letter pei is here doubled. In the Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Terumoth¹⁹⁵8:3. the Rabbis said, “It is a small kind of serpent, its name is sh’phiphon, and it is as thin as a hair,” with the earth being permitted to crack before it. Samson is compared to a snake because Samson did not wage war against his enemies as did the other judges and kings. Rather he alone went out against them, just as the viper which leaves his hole to attack travellers on the road, or the small species of serpent of which the traveller is not at all aware.