Who sharpen their tongue like a sword, And bend their bows to shoot their arrows—bitter words,
Parallel translations
- WEB who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words,
- KJV Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
- BSB who sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows,
- 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. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Ps 58:7Let them vanish like water that flows away. When they draw the bow, let their arrows be made blunt.
- Ps 11:2For, behold, the wicked bend their bows. They set their arrows on the strings, that they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.
- Prov 12:18There is one who speaks rashly like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals.
- Isa 54:17No weapon that is formed against you will prevail; and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of Yahweh’s servants, and their righteousness is of me,” says Yahweh.
- Prov 30:14There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and their jaws like knives, to devour the poor from the earth, and the needy from among men.
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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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