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“The word ‘man’ in these two lines is expressed in the first by  אדם (homo,) in the second by  איש (vir.)” — Jebb’s Translation of the Psalms, etc., volume 1.

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Mant translates —

“The serpent’s brandished tongue is theirs.”

“The verb,” says he, “here rendered ‘brandished,’ signifies either ‘to whet, sharpen,’ which is performed by reiterated motion or friction, or to ‘vibrate.’ In either case the metaphor, as applied to a wicked tongue, is beautiful and appropriate. I have preferred the latter as affording a more poetical image. See Parkhurst on  שנן, 3.” In illustration of this figure Kimchi observes, that “the serpent when it comes to bite will open its mouth, and will hiss, and move its tongue here and there as if it would make it sharp as a barber’s razor.”

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The original word  עכשוב, achshub, rendered “asp,” is to be found in Scripture only in this place; and though it evidently denotes some of the serpent tribe, it is not so easy to determine the particular species intended. In our English Bible it is translated “adder,” and as the word is derived from an Arabic verb, which signifies to coil up, or bend back, it has been said that this act perfectly corresponds with the nature of the adder, which in preparing to strike contracts itself into a spiral form, and raises its horrid head from the middle of the orb; and which also assumes the same form when it goes to sleep, coiling its body into a number of circles, with its head in the center. — (Paxton’s Illustrations of Scripture, vol. i. p. 428.) But the same action is common to most serpents; and this name may, therefore have reference to no particular species. Some, however, contend that it is another name for the pethem, or asp mentioned in Job 20:14, the venom of which is so deadly as to be incurable and followed by speedy death, unless the wounded part is amputated. Such seems to have been the opinion of the LXX., as they render it by  ασπις, in which they are followed by the Vulgate and by the Apostle Paul, who quotes this text in Romans 3:13. Calvin here adopts the word sanctioned by these authorities.

“As to the poison, it will be observed, that in the venomous serpents there is a gland under the eye secreting the poisonous matter which is conveyed in a small tube or canal to the end of a fang which lies concealed at the roof of the mouth. This fang is moveable at the pleasure of the serpent, and is protruded when it is about to strike at an antagonist. The situation of this poison, which is in a manner behind the upper lip, gives great propriety to the expression — ‘Adders’ poison is under their lips.’ The usage of the Hebrew language, renders it by no means improbable that the fang itself is called  לשון, lashon, ‘a tongue,’ in the present text; and a serpent might be said to sharpen its tongue, when in preparing to strike it protruded its fangs. We do not see any explanation by which a more consistent meaning may be extracted from the expression here employed.” — Illustrated Commentary upon the Bible.

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The imagery in this verse is borrowed from the practices of hunters and fowlers in the eastern regions of the world, who are accustomed to take and destroy the ferocious beasts and the larger species of birds by a variety of ingenious snares and devices. It is a curious circumstance, as noticed by Thevenot, that artifices of this kind are literally employed against men as well as against birds and wild beasts by some of the Orientals. “The cunningest robbers in the world,” says he, as quoted by Mant, “are in this country. They use a certain slip, with a running noose, which they cast with so much slight about a man’s neck when they are within reach of him, that they never fail, so that they strangle him in a trice.”