You unleash your mouth for evil and unharness your tongue for deceit.
Parallel translations
- WEB “You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.
- KJV Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.
- NKJV You give your mouth to evil, And your tongue frames deceit.
- NASB “You let your mouth loose in evil, And your tongue harnesses deceit.
- NLT Your mouth is filled with wickedness, and your tongue is full of lies.
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
Their mouths are given over to evil and their tongues weave deceit. Their sins of speech expose their corruption.
Overview
God indicts their misuse of speech: they freely speak evil and craft deceit. The tongue, meant to praise God and bless others, becomes an instrument of wickedness. James warns similarly that blessing God while cursing men reveals an unrenewed heart; true worship requires consistency of word and life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 10:7His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and violence; trouble and malice are under his tongue.
- Ps 52:2–4Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.
- Rev 21:8But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”
- Jer 9:5Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity.
- Jas 3:5–9In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it boasts of great things. Consider how small a spark sets a great forest ablaze.
- Isa 59:3–4For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice.
- Ps 5:9For not a word they speak can be trusted; destruction lies within them. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.
- Rom 3:13–14“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.”
- Ps 55:21His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.
- Ps 36:3–4The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and well-doing.
- Ps 55:12For it is not an enemy who insults me; that I could endure. It is not a foe who rises against me; from him I could hide.
- Ps 64:3–5who sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows,
- Hos 4:2Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.
- Ps 12:2–3They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.
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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 50:19 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.