Whose mouth speaks lying words, And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
Parallel translations
- WEB whose mouths speak deceit, Whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
- KJV Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
- BSB whose mouths speak falsehood, whose right hands are deceitful.
- NASB Whose mouth speaks deceit, And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
- NLT Their mouths are full of lies; they swear to tell the truth, but they lie instead.
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.
Quick answer
David's enemies speak deceit and swear falsely with their right hand. It exposes the lying treachery of those who oppose him.
Overview
David characterizes his foes by their deceit and false oaths, a 'right hand of falsehood' marking broken faith. Such dishonesty contrasts with God's faithfulness. Deliverance from deceivers anticipates the kingdom of Christ, in whose mouth no deceit was found and who establishes truth (1 Peter 2:22; Revelation 21:8).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 12:2Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.
- Ps 62:4They fully intend to throw him down from his lofty place. They delight in lies. They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah.
- Ps 41:6If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes abroad, he tells it.
- Isa 44:20He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”
- Matt 5:30If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.
- Ps 10:7His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.
- Rev 13:16–17He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands, or on their foreheads;
- Deut 32:40For I lift up my hand to heaven and declare, as I live forever,
- Ps 58:3The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
- Isa 59:5–7They hatch adders’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web. He who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
- Gen 14:22Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up my hand to Yahweh, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth,
- Ps 106:26Therefore he swore to them that he would overthrow them in the wilderness,
- Ps 109:2–3for they have opened the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit against me. They have spoken to me with a lying tongue.
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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 144:8 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
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