You will tread on the lion and cobra. You will trample the young lion and the serpent underfoot.
⛓ Read Psalm 91 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion3
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
Paul gathers sticks, a viper fastens on his hand, yet he shakes it off unharmed. The promise that the righteous one 'will tread on the adder' and trample serpent and viper without harm (LXX Ps 90:13) is the closest scriptural template for the scene: deadly snake, divine protection, no injury. The vocabulary of viper/serpent and the motif of the protected servant give strong thematic coherence at the book's climax.
High confidenceAuthority to tread on serpents and scorpions draws directly on the promise that the faithful will tread on the lion and the serpent, a psalm of protection from all harm. Volume (treading on serpents) and the explicit you-will-not-be-hurt assurance make this the primary base.
High confidenceThe promise that believers 'will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them' directly recalls Psalm 91's pledge that the faithful will tread on the serpent and the adder and be guarded from harm. Volume is moderate (shared serpent-and-protection imagery) and the psalm's protective register coheres with the signs-following-believers theme, making this the strongest OT echo in the longer ending.
Medium confidenceEcho1
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
The verse immediately after Satan's quotation ('you will tread on the lion and the adder') promises mastery over the adversary — an ironic uncited remainder of Ps 91 that the narrative enacts as Jesus masters the devil.
Low confidence