Psalms 59:7

59:7 Look, they hurl insults at me

and openly threaten to kill me, ¹ 

for they say, ² 

“Who hears?”

Psalms 59:12

59:12 They speak sinful words. ³ 

So let them be trapped by their own pride

and by the curses and lies they speak!

Psalms 140:3

140:3 Their tongues wound like a serpent; ⁴ 

a viper’s ⁵  venom is behind ⁶  their lips. (Selah)

Ezekiel 36:3

36:3 So prophesy and say: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Surely because they have made you desolate and crushed you from all directions, so that you have become the property of the rest of the nations, and have become the subject of gossip ⁷  and slander among the people,

[59:7]  ¹ tn Heb “look, they gush forth with their mouth, swords [are] in their lips.”

[59:7]  ² tn The words “for they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The following question (“Who hears?”) is spoken by the psalmist’s enemies, who are confident that no one else can hear their threats against the psalmist. They are aggressive because they feel the psalmist is vulnerable and has no one to help him.

[59:12]  ³ tn Heb “the sin of their mouth [is] the word of their lips.”

[140:3]  ⁴ 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.”

[140:3]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term is used only here in the OT.

[140:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “under.”

[36:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “lip of the tongue.”