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They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. Viper’s poison is under their lips. Selah.
Psalms 140:3 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.
  • BSB They sharpen their tongues like snakes; the venom of vipers is on their lips. Selah
  • NKJV They sharpen their tongues like a serpent; The poison of asps is under their lips. Selah
  • NASB They sharpen their tongues like a snake; The venom of a viper is under their lips. Selah
  • NLT Their tongues sting like a snake; the venom of a viper drips from their lips. Interlude

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 16

  • Ps 58:4Their poison is like the poison of a snake; like a deaf cobra that stops its ear,
  • 2 Cor 11:3But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
  • Rom 3:13–14“Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips”;
  • Prov 23:32In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.
  • Jas 3:6–8And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna.
  • Isa 59:3–5For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.
  • Jer 9:5Everyone will deceive their neighbors, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves commiting iniquity.
  • Jer 9:3“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood; and they have grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says Yahweh.
  • Matt 12:34You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
  • Ps 57:4My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
  • Gen 3:13Yahweh God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
  • Isa 59:13transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
  • Prov 12:18There is one who speaks rashly like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals.
  • Ps 52:2–3Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
  • Ps 64:3–4who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words,
  • Ps 59:7Behold, they spew with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, “For”, they say, “who hears us?”

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (6)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 140:3YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.

How Psalms 140:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.