The word is pethen: it has been identified with the naja haje, a snake that has the power of expelling its deadly poison to some distance, which has caused the Dutch colonists at the Cape to call them the spitting snake. Its “cruel venom” is used symbolically to describe the wine of the wicked (Deut. 32:33; compare. Rom. 3:13), and the inward misery of those who are secretly wicked (Job 20:14,16). In the millennium a child will play harmlessly at its hole (Isa. 11:8).
Egyptian Cobra – Naja Haje