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 

Psalms 119:106

119:106 I have vowed and solemnly sworn

to keep your just regulations.

Proverbs 13:3

13:3 The one who guards his words ⁵  guards his life,

but ⁶  whoever is talkative ⁷  will come to ruin. ⁸ 

Acts 11:23

11:23 When ⁹  he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain true ¹⁰  to the Lord with devoted hearts, ¹¹ 

James 3:2

3:2 For we all stumble ¹²  in many ways. If someone does not stumble ¹³  in what he says, ¹⁴  he is a perfect individual, ¹⁵  able to control the entire body as well.

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 “mouth” (so KJV, NAB). The term פֶּה (peh, “mouth”) functions as a metonymy of cause for speech.

⁶ tn The term “but” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

⁷ tn Heb “opens wide his lips.” This is an idiom meaning “to be talkative” (BDB 832 s.v. פָּשַׂק Qal). Cf. NIV “speaks rashly”; TEV “a careless talker”; CEV “talk too much.”

⁸ sn Tight control over what one says prevents trouble (e.g., Prov 10:10; 17:28; Jas 3:1-12; Sir 28:25). Amenemope advises to “sleep a night before speaking” (5:15; ANET 422, n. 10). The old Arab proverb is appropriate: “Take heed that your tongue does not cut your throat” (O. Zockler, Proverbs, 134).

⁹ tn Grk “Antioch, who when.” The relative pronoun was omitted and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek.

¹⁰ tn BDAG 883 s.v. προσμένω 1.a.β has “remain true to the Lord” for προσμένειν (prosmenein) in this verse.

¹¹ tn Grk “with purpose of heart”; BDAG 869 s.v. πρόθεσις 2.a translates this phrase “purpose of heart, i.e. devotion” here.

¹² tn Or “fail.”

¹³ tn Or “fail.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “in speech.”

¹⁵ 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).