New Revised Standard Version
If the snake bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage in a charmer.

Contemporary English Version
The power to charm a snake does you no good if it bites you anyway.

New American Bible
If the snake bites before it is charmed, then there is no advantage in a charmer.

Douay-Rheims Bible
If a serpent bite in silence, he is nothing better that backbiteth secretly.

If a serpent bite in silence, he is nothing better that backbiteth secretly.

the serpent

Psalm 58:4,5 Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent: like the deaf asp that stoppeth her ears: . . .

Jeremiah 8:17 For behold I will send among you serpents, basilisks, against which there is no charm: and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.

babbler

Psalm 52:2 All the day long thy tongue hath devised injustice: as a sharp razor, thou hast wrought deceit.

Psalm 64:3 For they have whetted their tongues like a sword; they have bent their bow a bitter thing,

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: they that love it, shall eat the fruits thereof.

James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is placed among our members, which defileth the whole body and inflameth the wheel of our nativity, being set on fire by hell.