Psalms 45:5

45:5 Your arrows are sharp

and penetrate the hearts of the king’s enemies.

Nations fall at your feet. ¹ 

Psalms 64:3

64:3 They ²  sharpen their tongues like a sword;

they aim their arrow, a slanderous charge, ³ 

Psalms 140:3

140:3 Their tongues wound like a serpent; ⁴ 

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

[45:5]  ¹ tn Heb “your arrows are sharp – peoples beneath you fall – in the heart of the enemies of the king.” The choppy style reflects the poet’s excitement.

[64:3]  ² tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[64:3]  ³ tn Heb “a bitter word.”

[140:3]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term is used only here in the OT.

[140:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “under.”