What Does Psalm 91:13 Mean?
On the lion and the adder you tread; the young lion and the serpent you trample.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.THE KEY
The Hebrew root for “tread” also gives the word for “way”: what blocks the path is placed beneath your feet.
THE MEANING
The lion, adder, young lion, and dragon hold the image of danger in its full force. Here, you tread and trample: the threat is beneath your feet, and your passage continues through it. The verse speaks of movement that danger does not command.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that whatever threatens your way must control it; the verse places that threat underfoot.
THE ROOT
תִּדְרֹךְ
tidrokh
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
To tread, step, or march; the same root gives Hebrew its word for a way trodden by feet.
“tread” in this verse is tidrokh. English separates the act of stepping from the path beneath it, but Hebrew connects them through one root. The verse pictures the danger beneath your feet as you keep moving along the way.
ALSO GROWS
derekh: Way, road, or path
דֶּרֶךְ
This word for “way” grows from the same root as “tread,” linking the movement of your feet with the route ahead.
midrakh: A trodden place or footprint
מִדְרָךְ
This branch brings the image down to the ground: what is underfoot is pressed beneath the foot, not merely nearby.
THE PATTERN
Serpentine danger is brought beneath the feet, so it no longer rules the way forward.
And I will set opposition between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.Look, I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the strength of the enemy, and nothing will by any means injure you.And the God of wholeness will crush the Adversary under your feet swiftly. The favor of our Lord Jesus, the anointed one, be with you. Amen.THE THREAD
Let Dan be a serpent on the road, an adder on the path, that bites the horse's heels, so that his rider falls backward.Genesis places the serpent and adder on the way; Psalm 91 uses a form of the same Hebrew root as “way” for the act of treading. The shared root turns the image around: what lies across the route is brought beneath the feet.
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