In Q 7:16–17, Iblis tells God he will lie in wait for humanity along the straight path of God to assail them as revenge for being cast out of Paradise for refusing to prostrate before Adam. A similar thought also occurs in Theodoret of Cyrus’s Commentary on the Psalms (142.2):

In his commentary, Theodoret uses Psalm 142:3 to describe David being entrapped by Saul, which he then uses as an illustration of the Devil laying traps for believers while they attempt to live the Christian life, similar to Iblis’s statement that he will lie and wait for people

along the straight path of God. There is a difference between the Quran and Theodoret’s presentation of this idea however. The Quran places this statement following Iblis refusing to prostrate before Adam and being expelled from paradise, whereas Theodoret derives this idea of

the devil setting snares for the Christian in an example derived from the life of David. Regardless, given the similarity between the two texts, the Quran may be referring to a much wider Christian tradition of which Theodoret may provide one example.