Psalms 39:1

Psalm 39 ¹ 

For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of David.

39:1 I decided, ²  “I will watch what I say

and make sure I do not sin with my tongue. ³ 

I will put a muzzle over my mouth

while in the presence of an evil man.” ⁴ 

Proverbs 18:21

18:21 Death and life are in the power ⁵  of the tongue, ⁶ 

and those who love its use ⁷  will eat its fruit.

Matthew 12:35-37

12:35 The good person ⁸  brings good things out of his ⁹  good treasury, ¹⁰  and the evil person brings evil things out of his evil treasury. 12:36 I ¹¹  tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak. 12:37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

James 1:19

Living Out the Message

1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! ¹²  Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.

James 1:26

1:26 If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile.

James 3:2

3:2 For we all stumble ¹³  in many ways. If someone does not stumble ¹⁴  in what he says, ¹⁵  he is a perfect individual, ¹⁶  able to control the entire body as well.

James 3:5-10

3:5 So too the tongue is a small part of the body, ¹⁷  yet it has great pretensions. ¹⁸  Think ¹⁹  how small a flame sets a huge forest ablaze. 3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ²⁰  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ²¹  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ²² 

3:7 For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature ²³  is subdued and has been subdued by humankind. ²⁴  3:8 But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless ²⁵  evil, full of deadly poison. 3:9 With it we bless the Lord ²⁶  and Father, and with it we curse people ²⁷  made in God’s image. 3:10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things should not be so, my brothers and sisters. ²⁸ 

¹ sn Psalm 39. The psalmist laments his frailty and mortality as he begs the Lord to take pity on him and remove his disciplinary hand.

² tn Heb “I said.”

³ tn Heb “I will watch my ways, from sinning with my tongue.”

⁴ sn The psalmist wanted to voice a lament to the Lord (see vv. 4-6), but he hesitated to do so in the presence of evil men, for such words might be sinful if they gave the wicked an occasion to insult God. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 1:345.

⁵ tn Heb “in the hand of.”

⁶ sn What people say can lead to life or death. The Midrash on Psalms shows one way the tongue [what is said] can cause death: “The evil tongue slays three, the slanderer, the slandered, and the listener” (Midrash Tehillim 52:2). See J. G. Williams, “The Power of Form: A Study of Biblical Proverbs,” Semeia 17 (1980): 35-38.

⁷ tn The referent of “it” must be the tongue, i.e., what the tongue says (= “its use”). So those who enjoy talking, indulging in it, must “eat” its fruit, whether good or bad. The expression “eating the fruit” is an implied comparison; it means accept the consequences of loving to talk (cf. TEV).

⁸ tn The Greek text reads here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpos). The term is generic referring to any person.

⁹ tn Grk “the”; the Greek article has been translated here and in the following clause (“his evil treasury”) as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

¹⁰ sn The treasury here is a metaphorical reference to a person’s heart (cf. BDAG 456 s.v. θησαυρός 1.b and the parallel passage in Luke 6:45).

¹¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

¹³ tn Or “fail.”

¹⁴ tn Or “fail.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “in speech.”

¹⁶ tn The word for “man” or “individual” is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But it sometimes is used generically to mean “anyone,” “a person,” as here (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 2).

¹⁷ tn Grk “a small member.”

¹⁸ tn Grk “boasts of great things.”

¹⁹ tn Grk “Behold.”

²⁰ tn Grk “makes itself,” “is made.”

²¹ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

²² sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).

²³ tn Grk (plurals), “every kind of animals and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures.”

²⁴ tn Grk “the human species.”

²⁵ 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.

²⁶ tc Most later mss (Ï), along with several versional witnesses, have θεόν (qeon, “God”) here instead of κύριον (kurion, “Lord”). Such is a predictable variant since nowhere else in the NT is God described as “Lord and Father,” but he is called “God and Father” on several occasions. Further, the reading κύριον is well supported by early and diversified witnesses (̲⁰ א A B C P Ψ 33 81 945 1241 1739), rendering it as the overwhelmingly preferred reading.

²⁷ tn Grk “men”; but here ἀνθρώπους (anqrwpous) has generic force, referring to both men and women.

²⁸ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.