Psalms 140:3

140:3 Their tongues wound like a serpent; ¹ 

a viper’s ²  venom is behind ³  their lips. (Selah)

Ecclesiastes 10:11

10:11 If the snake should bite before it is charmed, ⁴ 

the snake charmer ⁵  is in trouble. ⁶ 

Romans 3:13

3:13 “Their throats are open graves, ⁷ 

they deceive with their tongues,

the poison of asps is under their lips.” ⁸ 

James 3:8

3:8 But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless ⁹  evil, full of deadly poison.

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.”

⁴ tn Heb “without charming.”

⁵ tn Heb “the master of the tongue.”

⁶ tn Heb “has no profit”; ASV, NAB, NRSV “there is no advantage.”

⁷ tn Grk “their throat is an opened grave.”

⁸ sn A quotation from Pss 5:9; 140:3.

⁹ tc Most mss (C Ψ 1739^c Ï as well as a few versions and fathers) read “uncontrollable” (ἀκατασχετόν, akatasceton), while the most important witnesses (א A B K P 1739* latt) have “restless” (ἀκατάστατον, akatastaton). Externally, the latter reading should be preferred. Internally, however, things get a bit more complex. The notion of being uncontrollable is well suited to the context, especially as a counterbalance to v. 8a, though for this very reason scribes may have been tempted to replace ἀκατάστατον with ἀκατασχετόν. However, in a semantically parallel early Christian text, ἀκατάστατος (akatastato") was considered strong enough of a term to denounce slander as “a restless demon” (Herm. 27:3). On the other hand, ἀκατάστατον may have been substituted for ἀκατασχετόν by way of assimilation to 1:8 (especially since both words were relatively rare, scribes may have replaced the less familiar with one that was already used in this letter). On internal evidence, it is difficult to decide, though ἀκατασχετόν is slightly preferred. However, in light of the strong support for ἀκατάστατον, and the less-than-decisive internal evidence, ἀκατάστατον is preferred instead.