Back to Psalms 91

Psalms 91:13

You will tread on the lion and cobra. You will trample the young lion and the serpent underfoot.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    You will tread on the lion and cobra. You will trample the young lion and the serpent underfoot.

  • KJV King James Version

    Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    Thou shalt tread upon the lion and asp; the young lion and the serpent shalt thou trample under feet.

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Cross-references (14)

Passages linked to Psalms 91:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Luke 10:19 Behold, I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will in any way hurt you.
  • Daniel 6:22 My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not hurt me; because as before him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”
  • Mark 16:18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
  • 1 Samuel 17:37 David said, “Yahweh who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go! Yahweh will be with you.”
  • Romans 16:20 And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
  • Judges 14:5-6 Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and his mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion roared at him. Yahweh’s Spirit came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a young goat with his bare hands, but he didn’t tell his father or his mother what he had done.
  • 2 Timothy 4:17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear. So I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
  • Acts 28:3-6 But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped from the sea, yet Justice has not allowed to live.” However he shook off the creature into the fire, and wasn’t harmed. But they expected that he would have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly, but when they watched for a long time and saw nothing bad happen to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
  • Isaiah 27:1 In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.
  • Revelation 20:1-2 I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years,
  • Job 5:23 For you will be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field will be at peace with you.
  • Psalms 58:4 Their poison is like the poison of a snake, like a deaf cobra that stops its ear,
  • Revelation 12:9 The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
  • Romans 3:13 “Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips.”

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (15 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 13. Thou shalt walk over the lion and asp.…

13. Thou shalt walk over the lion and asp. The same truth is here expressed in different words. He had already spoken of the obstacles which Satan throws in our course under the figure of a stone. Now he speaks of the formidable troubles to which we are exposed in the world under the figures of the asp, lion, young lion, and dragon So long as we are here we may be truly said to walk amongst wild beasts, and such as threaten us with destruction. And in this case what would become of us did not God promise to make us victorious over the manifold evils which everywhere impend us? None who seriously considers the temptations to which he is liable will wonder that the Psalmist, with the view of removing apprehension from the minds of the Lord’s people, should have adopted the language of hyperbole; nor indeed will he say that it is the language of hyperbole, but a true and exact representation of their case. We boast much of our courage so long as we remain at a distance from the scene of danger; but no sooner are we brought into action, than in the smallest matters we conjure up to ourselves lions, and dragons, and a host of frightful dangers. The Psalmist accommodates his language to this infirmity of our carnal apprehension. The Hebrew word שחל, shachal, which in the Septuagint is rendered asp, signifies a lion, and such repetition in the second member of the sentence is usual in the Hebrew. There is therefore no occasion for seeking any nice distinction which may have been intended in specifying these four different kinds of animals; only by the lion and young lion we are evidently to understand more open dangers, where we are assailed by force and violence, and by the serpent and dragon hidden mischiefs, where the enemy springs upon us insidiously and unexpectedly, as the serpent from its lurking place.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Thou shalt not only be preserved from all evil,…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 91:13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The lion shall lie prostrate at thy feet, and…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder,.... Or…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The lion - Shall lie prostrate at thy feet,…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 91:13. Thou shalt tread upon the lion —…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder -…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 13. Lion… adder—Two deadly enemies, the one representing open…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 13. Thou shalt triumphantly overcome all obstacles and dangers,…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) Lion . . . adder . . .…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder. Conquered…
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 13. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder.

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