Revised Literal Translation
Psalms 140:3
3They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.
Psalms 140:3 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.
- New International Version (NIV)They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips.
- English Standard Version (ESV)They make their tongue sharp as a serpent's, and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah
- New King James Version (NKJV)They sharpen their tongues like a serpent; The poison of asps is under their lips. Selah
Context of Psalms 140:3
1Deliver me, O Yhwh, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; 2Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah. 4Keep me, O Yhwh, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings. 5The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah.
Read all of Psalms 140Psalms 140:3 word by word
שָֽׁנֲנ֣וּ לְשׁוֹנָם֮ כְּֽמוֹ־נָ֫חָ֥שׁ חֲמַ֥ת עַכְשׁ֑וּב תַּ֖חַת שְׂפָתֵ֣ימוֹ סֶֽלָה׃Read the interlinear
Cross-references for Psalms 140:3
- Psalms 52:2Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
- Psalms 57:4My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
- Psalms 59:7Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?
- Psalms 64:3Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
- Proverbs 12:18There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
- Isaiah 59:3For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
- Jeremiah 9:3And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Yhwh.
- James 3:6And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
- Genesis 3:13And Yhwh God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
- Proverbs 23:32At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
- Matthew 12:34O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
- 2 Corinthians 11:3But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
- Psalms 58:4Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
- Romans 3:13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Commentaries on Psalms 140:3
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 3They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent - Compare the notes at Psalm 64:3. The idea here is, that since the tongue of the serpent “seems” to be sharp, pointed, adapted to penetrate (and probably the original reference in the image was derived from that idea), the wound inflicted is by the serpent‘s tongue - “as if” with a hard, penetrating point. It is now known, however, that it is by a tooth - a single tooth, made flexible for the purpose - at…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 3snakes … vipers: These creatures portray the wicked as very corrupt people (see Proverbs 23:32; Isaiah 14:29; Romans 3:13).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2-52-5. This character of the wicked, and the devices planned against the pious, correspond to Psa 10:7; 31:13; 58:4, &c.Read the comment
- Rashi on Tanakh · v. 3every day they gather to wage war There will be wars in their dwellings and in their settlements.Read the comment
Topics related to Psalms 140:3
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Psalms 140
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- The Treasury of David
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
Revised Literal Translation — © 2018 Michael W. Jones, Sr. — GPL
Commentaries