Psalms 31:20

31:20 You hide them with you, where they are safe from the attacks ¹  of men; ² 

you conceal them in a shelter, where they are safe from slanderous attacks. ³ 

Psalms 55:21

55:21 His words are as smooth as butter, ⁴ 

but he harbors animosity in his heart. ⁵ 

His words seem softer than oil,

but they are really like sharp swords. ⁶ 

Psalms 57:4

57:4 I am surrounded by lions;

I lie down ⁷  among those who want to devour me; ⁸ 

men whose teeth are spears and arrows,

whose tongues are a sharp sword. ⁹ 

Proverbs 12:18

12:18 Speaking recklessly ¹⁰  is like the thrusts of a sword,

but the words ¹¹  of the wise bring ¹²  healing. ¹³ 

Isaiah 54:17

54:17 No weapon forged to be used against you will succeed;

you will refute everyone who tries to accuse you. ¹⁴ 

This is what the Lord will do for his servants –

I will vindicate them,” ¹⁵ 

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 18:18

Jeremiah Petitions the Lord to Punish Those Who Attack Him

18:18 Then some people ¹⁶  said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! ¹⁷  There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. ¹⁸  Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! ¹⁹  Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”

James 3:5-8

3:5 So too the tongue is a small part of the body, ²⁰  yet it has great pretensions. ²¹  Think ²²  how small a flame sets a huge forest ablaze. 3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ²³  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ²⁴  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ²⁵ 

3:7 For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature ²⁶  is subdued and has been subdued by humankind. ²⁷  3:8 But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless ²⁸  evil, full of deadly poison.

[31:20]  ¹ tn The noun רֹכֶס (rokhes) occurs only here. Its meaning is debated; some suggest “snare,” while others propose “slander” or “conspiracy.”

[31:20]  ² tn Heb “you hide them in the hiding place of your face from the attacks of man.” The imperfect verbal forms in this verse draw attention to God’s typical treatment of the faithful.

[31:20]  ³ tn Heb “you conceal them in a shelter from the strife of tongues.”

[55:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “the butter-like [words] of his mouth are smooth.” The noun מַחְמָאֹת (makhma’ot, “butter-like [words]”) occurs only here. Many prefer to emend the form to מֵחֶמְאָה (mekhem’ah, from [i.e., “than”] butter”), cf. NEB, NRSV “smoother than butter.” However, in this case “his mouth” does not agree in number with the plural verb חָלְקוּ (kholqu, “they are smooth”). Therefore some further propose an emendation of פִּיו (piv, “his mouth”) to פָּנָיו (panayv, “his face”). In any case, the point seems to that the psalmist’s former friend spoke kindly to him and gave the outward indications of friendship.

[55:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “and war [is in] his heart.”

[55:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “his words are softer than oil, but they are drawn swords.”

[57:4]  ⁷ tn The cohortative form אֶשְׁכְּבָה (’eshkÿvah, “I lie down”) is problematic, for it does not seem to carry one of the normal functions of the cohortative (resolve or request). One possibility is that the form here is a “pseudo-cohortative” used here in a gnomic sense (IBHS 576-77 §34.5.3b).

[57:4]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew verb לָהַט (lahat) is here understood as a hapax legomenon meaning “devour” (see HALOT 521 s.v. II להט), a homonym of the more common verb meaning “to burn.” A more traditional interpretation takes the verb from this latter root and translates, “those who are aflame” (see BDB 529 s.v.; cf. NASB “those who breathe forth fire”).

[57:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “my life, in the midst of lions, I lie down, devouring ones, sons of mankind, their teeth a spear and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.” The syntax of the verse is difficult. Another option is to take “my life” with the preceding verse. For this to make sense, one must add a verb, perhaps “and may he deliver” (cf. the LXX), before the phrase. One might then translate, “May God send his loyal love and faithfulness and deliver my life.” If one does take “my life” with v. 4, then the parallelism of v. 5 is altered and one might translate: “in the midst of lions I lie down, [among] men who want to devour me, whose teeth….”

[12:18]  ¹⁰ tn The term בּוֹטֶה (boteh) means “to speak rashly [or, thoughtlessly]” (e.g., Lev 5:4; Num 30:7).

[12:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the tongue” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV). The term לָשׁוֹן (lashon, “tongue”) functions as a metonymy of cause for what is said.

[12:18]  ¹² tn The term “brings” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[12:18]  ¹³ sn Healing is a metonymy of effect. Healing words are the opposite of the cutting, irresponsible words. What the wise say is faithful and true, gentle and kind, uplifting and encouraging; so their words bring healing.

[54:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and every tongue that rises up for judgment with you will prove to be guilty.”

[54:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “this is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication from me.”

[18:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.

[18:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18 where this has sinister overtones as it does here.

[18:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Instruction will not perish from priest, counsel from the wise, word from the prophet.”

[18:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.

[3:5]  ²⁰ tn Grk “a small member.”

[3:5]  ²¹ tn Grk “boasts of great things.”

[3:5]  ²² tn Grk “Behold.”

[3:6]  ²³ tn Grk “makes itself,” “is made.”

[3:6]  ²⁴ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[3:6]  ²⁵ 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).

[3:7]  ²⁶ tn Grk (plurals), “every kind of animals and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures.”

[3:7]  ²⁷ tn Grk “the human species.”

[3:8]  ²⁸ 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.