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Selected Verse: Psalms 91:13 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Ps 91:13 |
King James |
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
Even the fiercest, strongest, and most insidious animals may be trampled on with impunity. |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder - Thou shalt be safe among dangers, as if the rage of the lion were restrained, and he became like a lamb, and as if the poisonous tooth of the serpent were extracted. Compare Mar 16:18. The word used here to denote the "lion" is a poetic term, not employed in prose. The word rendered "adder" is, in the margin, asp. The Hebrew word - פתן pethen - commonly means viper, asp, or adder. See Job 20:14, note; Job 20:16, note; compare Psa 58:4; Isa 11:8. It may be applied to any venomous serpent.
The young lion - The "young" lion is mentioned as particularly fierce and violent. See Psa 17:12.
And the dragon ... - Hebrew, תנין tannı̂yn. See Psa 74:13, note; Job 7:12, note; Isa 27:1, note. In Exo 7:9-10, Exo 7:12, the word is rendered serpent (and serpents); in Gen 1:21; and Job 7:12; whale (and whales); in Deu 32:33; Neh 2:13; Psa 74:13; Psa 148:7; Isa 27:1; Isa 51:9; Jer 51:34, as here, dragon (and dragons); in Lam 4:3, sea monsters. The word does not occur elsewhere. It would perhaps properly denote a sea monster; yet it may be applied to a serpent. Thus applied, it would denote a serpent of the largest and most dangerous kind; and the idea is, that he who trusted in God would be safe amidst the most fearful dangers, as if he should walk safely amidst venomous serpents. |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
The lion - Shall lie prostrate at thy feet, and thou shalt securely put thy feet upon his neck. Dragon - By which he understands all pernicious creatures, though never so strong, and all sorts of enemies. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder - Even the king of the forest shall not be able to injure thee; should one of these attack thee, the angels whom God sends will give thee an easy victory over him. And even the asp, (פתן pethen), one of the most venomous of serpents, shall not be able to injure thee.
The asp is a very small serpent, and peculiar to Egypt and Libya. Its poison kills without the possibility of a remedy. Those who are bitten by it die in about from three to eight hours; and it is said they die by sleep, without any kind of pain. Lord Bacon says the asp is less painful than all the other instruments of death. He supposes it to have an affinity to opium, but to be less disagreeable in its operation. It was probably an this account that Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, chose to die by the asp, as she was determined to prevent the designs of Augustus, who intended to have carried her captive to Rome to grace his triumph.
The dragon shalt thou trample - The תנין tannin, which we translate dragon, means often any large aquatic animal; and perhaps here the crocodile or alligator. |
3 Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
7 Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
13 And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.
33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
12 Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
12 For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.
9 When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.
10 And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
12 Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?
13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
12 Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
16 He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.
14 Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.
18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.