If the serpent bite before it is charmed, then is there no advantage in the charmer.
Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.
If the serpent bites before it is charmed, then it is no use to call a charmer [and the slanderer is no better than the uncharmed snake].
If a snake bites before it’s charmed, then there’s no profit for the snake charmer.
Whoever slanders in secret is nothing less than a snake that bites silently.