Text -- Psalms 140:3 (NET)

140:3 Their tongues wound like a serpent; a viper’s venom is behind their lips. (Selah)

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 140:3

¹ 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.”

² tn The Hebrew term is used only here in the OT.

³ tn Heb “under.”