I’m using Jacob Neusner’s verse 15 (although he calls it verse 10); there doesn’t seem to be any significant difference from translation to translation.
They said three things.
R. Eliezer says, “(1) let the respect owing to your fellow be as precious to you as the respect owing to you yourself.
“(2)And don’t be easy to anger.
“(3) And repent one day before you die.
“And (1) warm yourself by the fire of the sages, but be careful of their coals, so you don’t get burned.
“(2) for their bite is the bite of a fox, and their sting is the sting of a scorpion, and their hiss is like the hiss of a snake.
“(3) And everything they say is like fiery coals.”
There seems to be general agreement that this is a second triple, probably not original to the list of five disciples and their triples. Maimonedes (among others) thinks that these sayings weren’t really Rabbi Eliezer’s at all, but that he was just passing them along from older tradition. This is viewed with some skepticism by other interpreters, who see this as a very personal and bitter cry against the sages.
It does seem to stand out a bit, doesn’t it. I mean, amongst all the warnings and admonishments we’ve had so far, I don’t think there’s anything that attacks any category of person with this sort of dehumanizing viciousness. And who is the type that is the target of the attack? Murderers, desecrators, Romans? Sages. Very strange, isn’t it?
But if this is Eliezer’s bitterness, why is it here? Why include it? The sages certainly could have taken this bit out, and since it busts the rhythm of the chapter, it would certainly seem forgivable to do it. But they don’t. I don’t have any good answers, but I certainly have more questions…
Is it possible that Eliezer here is talking about himself? Go into this part of the verse with the idea of repentance held over from the last part—it’s his own fury in disputation that gets him expelled. Before that, he was among the sages, chief among the sages in reputation, if not in office. Are his own words like fiery coals? I think they are, in his mouth as much as in the ears of others. Are his furies those of the scorpion, the snake and the fox? Aren’t they?
But, again: Is it possible that we are ascribing bitterness to words meant in awe? When I think of fiery coals in the context of Scripture, I think of Isaiah 6:6, where the burning of the coal is (on balance) a positive thing. Look also at the story of Moses as an infant, where the angel guides his hand to the burning coal to put in his mouth—he winds up with a speech impediment, but it saves his life. The warning not to get burned has to (I think) be taken in that context.
Or, again, there’s Proverbs 6:24-6:29, which compares someone else’s beautiful wife to hot coals, asking Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? Are the sages, then, a temptation? If so, how?
The thing to remember, here, is that whether this is Eliezer or not, whether Eliezer is talking about himself or not, the sages described in the verse are the sages who agreed on the final text. Or, rather, the sages who agreed on the final text saw themselves as being the inheritors and conservators of those foxes, scorpions and snakes, and as being in some sense in communion with them. And what about you? And what about me?
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.
Given what you said about the bitter relationships he had with the rest of the sages, and his possible regret for that, it strikes me that he is regretting having crossed the rest of the sages and expressing the pain of having lost the people who were his colleagues and friends.