Mazmur 5:9
Konteks5:9 For 1 they do not speak the truth; 2
their stomachs are like the place of destruction, 3
their throats like an open grave, 4
their tongues like a steep slope leading into it. 5
Mazmur 10:7
Konteks10:7 His mouth is full of curses and deceptive, harmful words; 6
his tongue injures and destroys. 7
Mazmur 12:3-4
Konteks12:3 May the Lord cut off 8 all flattering lips,
and the tongue that boasts! 9
12:4 They say, 10 “We speak persuasively; 11
we know how to flatter and boast. 12
Who is our master?” 13
Mazmur 22:15
Konteks22:15 The roof of my mouth 14 is as dry as a piece of pottery;
my tongue sticks to my gums. 15
You 16 set me in the dust of death. 17
Mazmur 31:20
Konteks31:20 You hide them with you, where they are safe from the attacks 18 of men; 19
you conceal them in a shelter, where they are safe from slanderous attacks. 20
Mazmur 39:3
Konteks39:3 my anxiety intensified. 21
As I thought about it, I became impatient. 22
Finally I spoke these words: 23
Mazmur 51:14
Konteks51:14 Rescue me from the guilt of murder, 24 O God, the God who delivers me!
Then my tongue will shout for joy because of your deliverance. 25
Mazmur 55:9
KonteksFrustrate their plans! 27
For I see violence and conflict in the city.
Mazmur 64:3
Konteks64:3 They 28 sharpen their tongues like a sword;
they aim their arrow, a slanderous charge, 29
Mazmur 68:23
Konteks68:23 so that your feet may stomp 30 in their blood,
and your dogs may eat their portion of the enemies’ corpses.” 31
Mazmur 71:24
Konteks71:24 All day long my tongue will also tell about your justice,
for those who want to harm me 32 will be embarrassed and ashamed. 33
Mazmur 109:2
Konteks109:2 For they say cruel and deceptive things to me;
they lie to me. 34
Mazmur 140:3
Konteks140:3 Their tongues wound like a serpent; 35
a viper’s 36 venom is behind 37 their lips. (Selah)
Mazmur 140:11
Konteks140:11 A slanderer 38 will not endure on 39 the earth;
calamity will hunt down a violent man and strike him down. 40
[5:9] 2 tn Heb “for there is not in his mouth truthfulness.” The singular pronoun (“his”) probably refers back to the “man of bloodshed and deceit” mentioned in v. 6. The singular is collective or representative, as the plural in the next line indicates, and so has been translated “they.”
[5:9] 3 tn Heb “their inward part[s] [is] destruction.” For a discussion of the extended metaphor in v. 9b, see the note on the word “it” at the end of the verse.
[5:9] 4 tn Heb “their throat is an open grave.” For a discussion of the extended metaphor in v. 9b, see the note on the word “it” at the end of the verse. The metaphor is suggested by the physical resemblance of the human throat to a deeply dug grave; both are dark chasms.
[5:9] 5 tn Heb “they make smooth their tongue.” Flattering, deceitful words are in view. See Ps 12:2. The psalmist’s deceitful enemies are compared to the realm of death/Sheol in v. 9b. Sheol was envisioned as a dark region within the earth, the entrance to which was the grave with its steep slopes (cf. Ps 88:4-6). The enemies’ victims are pictured here as slipping down a steep slope (the enemies’ tongues) and falling into an open grave (their throat) that terminates in destruction in the inner recesses of Sheol (their stomach). The enemies’ קרב (“inward part”) refers here to their thoughts and motives, which are destructive in their intent. The throat is where these destructive thoughts are transformed into words, and their tongue is what they use to speak the deceitful words that lead their innocent victims to their demise.
[5:9] sn As the psalmist walks down the path in which God leads him, he asks the
[10:7] 6 tn Heb “[with] a curse his mouth is full, and lies and injury.”
[10:7] 7 tn Heb “under his tongue are destruction and wickedness.” The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 90:10. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10.
[12:3] 8 tn The verb form is a jussive, indicating that the statement is imprecatory (“May the
[12:3] 9 tn Heb “a tongue speaking great [things].”
[12:4] 10 tn Heb “which say.” The plural verb after the relative pronoun indicates a plural antecedent for the pronoun, probably “lips” in v. 3.
[12:4] 11 tn Heb “to our tongue we make strong.” The Hiphil of גָבַר (gavar) occurs only here and in Dan 9:27, where it refers to making strong, or confirming, a covenant. Here in Ps 12 the evildoers “make their tongue strong” in the sense that they use their tongue to produce flattering and arrogant words to accomplish their purposes. The preposition -לְ (l) prefixed to “our tongue” may be dittographic.
[12:4] 12 tn Heb “our lips [are] with us.” This odd expression probably means, “our lips are in our power,” in the sense that they say what they want, whether it be flattery or boasting. For other cases where אֵת (’et, “with”) has the sense “in the power of,” see Ps 38:10 and other texts listed by BDB 86 s.v. 3.a.
[12:4] 13 sn The rhetorical question expresses the arrogant attitude of these people. As far as they are concerned, they are answerable to no one for how they speak.
[22:15] 14 tc Heb “my strength” (כֹּחִי, kokhiy), but many prefer to emend the text to חִכִּי (khikiy, “my palate”; cf. NEB, NRSV “my mouth”) assuming that an error of transposition has occurred in the traditional Hebrew text.
[22:15] 15 tn Cf. NEB “my jaw”; NASB, NRSV “my jaws”; NIV “the roof of my mouth.”
[22:15] 16 sn Here the psalmist addresses God and suggests that God is ultimately responsible for what is happening because of his failure to intervene (see vv. 1-2, 11).
[22:15] 17 sn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to the progressive nature of the action. The psalmist is in the process of dying.
[31:20] 18 tn The noun רֹכֶס (rokhes) occurs only here. Its meaning is debated; some suggest “snare,” while others propose “slander” or “conspiracy.”
[31:20] 19 tn Heb “you hide them in the hiding place of your face from the attacks of man.” The imperfect verbal forms in this verse draw attention to God’s typical treatment of the faithful.
[31:20] 20 tn Heb “you conceal them in a shelter from the strife of tongues.”
[39:3] 21 tn Heb “my heart was hot within me.”
[39:3] 22 tn Heb “In my reflection fire burned.” The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite (past tense) or an imperfect being used in a past progressive or customary sense (“fire was burning”).
[39:3] 23 tn Heb “I spoke with my tongue.” The phrase “these words” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
[51:14] 24 tn Heb “from bloodshed.” “Bloodshed” here stands by metonymy for the guilt which it produces.
[51:14] 25 tn Heb “my tongue will shout for joy your deliverance.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a jussive, “may my tongue shout for joy.” However, the pattern in vv. 12-15 appears to be prayer/request (see vv. 12, 14a, 15a) followed by promise/vow (see vv. 13, 14b, 15b).
[55:9] 26 tn Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallow” in the sense of “devour” or “destroy” (cf. KJV), but this may be a homonym meaning “confuse” (see BDB 118 s.v. בַּלַּע; HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע). “Their tongue” is the understood object of the verb (see the next line).
[55:9] 27 tn Heb “split their tongue,” which apparently means “confuse their speech,” or, more paraphrastically, “frustrate the plans they devise with their tongues.”
[64:3] 28 tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[64:3] 29 tn Heb “a bitter word.”
[68:23] 30 tc Some (e.g. NRSV) prefer to emend מָחַץ (makhats, “smash; stomp”; see v. 21) to רָחַץ (rakhats, “bathe”; see Ps 58:10).
[68:23] 31 tn Heb “[and] the tongue of your dogs from [the] enemies [may eat] its portion.”
[71:24] 32 tn Heb “those who seek my harm.”
[71:24] 33 tn Heb “will have become embarrassed and ashamed.” The perfect verbal forms function here as future perfects, indicating future actions which will precede chronologically the action expressed by the main verb in the preceding line.
[109:2] 34 tn Heb “for a mouth of evil and a mouth of deceit against me they open, they speak with me [with] a tongue of falsehood.”
[140:3] 35 tn Heb “they sharpen their tongue like a serpent.” Ps 64:3 reads, “they sharpen their tongues like sword.” Perhaps Ps 140:3 uses a mixed metaphor, the point being that “they sharpen their tongues [like a sword],” as it were, so that when they speak, their words wound like a serpent’s bite. Another option is that the language refers to the pointed or forked nature of a serpent’s tongue, which is viewed metaphorically as “sharpened.”
[140:3] 36 tn The Hebrew term is used only here in the OT.
[140:11] 38 tn Heb “a man of a tongue.”
[140:11] 39 tn Heb “be established in.”
[140:11] 40 tn Heb “for blows.” The Hebrew noun מַדְחֵפֹה (madkhefoh, “blow”) occurs only here in the OT.
