Behold, they gush forth with their mouths; Swords are in their lips, For, they say, “Who hears?”
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, they spew with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, “For”, they say, “who hears us?”
- KJV Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?
- BSB See what they spew from their mouths—sharp words from their lips: “For who can hear us?”
- NKJV Indeed, they belch with their mouth; Swords are in their lips; For they say, “Who hears?”
- NLT Listen to the filth that comes from their mouths; their words cut like swords. “After all, who can hear us?” they sneer.
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
The wicked spew cutting words like swords, presuming no one hears them. It exposes their arrogant confidence that they will not be held to account.
Overview
David describes his enemies' speech as weapons and their attitude as defiant, imagining God neither hears nor cares. Their words betray a heart that denies divine accountability. Yet Scripture warns that God hears every word, and we will give account for them to the righteous Judge.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- 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.
- Prov 15:2The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of fools gush out folly.
- Ps 10:11He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.”
- Ps 73:11They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
- Prov 12:18There is one who speaks rashly like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals.
- Ps 55:21His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
- Ps 64:3–5who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words,
- Ps 94:7–9They say, “Yah will not see, neither will Jacob’s God consider.”
- Ps 10:13Why does the wicked person condemn God, and say in his heart, “God won’t call me into account?”
- Prov 15:28The heart of the righteous weighs answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes out evil.
- Jer 33:24“Don’t consider what this people has spoken, saying, ‘The two families which Yahweh chose, he has cast them off?’ Thus they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.”
- 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.
- Job 22:12–13“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!
- Ps 94:4They pour out arrogant words. All the evildoers boast.
- 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 59:7 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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