Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
Parallel translations
- WEB who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words,
- BSB who sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows,
- NKJV Who sharpen their tongue like a sword, And bend their bows to shoot their arrows—bitter words,
- NASB Who have sharpened their tongues like a sword. They aimed bitter speech as their arrows,
- NLT They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows.
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 use their tongues like swords and aim bitter words like arrows. It warns of the real and piercing harm that malicious speech can inflict.
Overview
David pictures slander and cruel speech as weapons sharpened and aimed to wound. Scripture often treats the tongue as capable of great destruction, and here it is the chosen weapon of the wicked. The contrast points us to Christ, who though reviled did not revile in return but committed Himself to the righteous Judge.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 57:4My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
- Jer 9:3And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.
- Jas 3:6–8And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
- Ps 58:7Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
- Ps 11:2For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.
- Prov 12:18There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
- Isa 54:17No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.
- Prov 30:14There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 64:3 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
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