Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 59:5

"They hatch adders` eggs, and weave the spider`s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth; and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper." — Isaiah 59:5 (ASV)

They hatch cockatrice’ eggs. —Better, basilisk’s, as in Isaiah 14:29. The schemes of the evildoers are displayed in their power for evil and their impotence for good. To “eat of the eggs,” which are assumed to be poisonous, is to fall in with their schemes, and so be ruined; to “crush” them is to oppose and so to rouse a more venomous opposition. Men break the egg, and the living viper darts forth to attack them.