“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.”
Parallel translations
- WEB “Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips”;
- KJV Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
- NKJV “Theirthroat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”;
- NASB “Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The venom of asps is under their lips”;
- NLT “Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their tongues are filled with lies.” “Snake venom drips from their lips.”
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
Drawing on the Psalms, Paul pictures the corruption of human speech as deadly and deceitful. It shows that sin defiles even our words.
Overview
Quoting Psalm 5:9 and Psalm 140:3, Paul illustrates how sin pervades human communication, comparing the throat to an open grave and the tongue to a viper's venom. The vivid imagery exposes the deadly, deceptive nature of fallen speech. Such language demonstrates that sin is not merely outward action but flows from a corrupted heart needing redemption.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 5:9For not a word they speak can be trusted; destruction lies within them. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.
- Ps 140:3They sharpen their tongues like snakes; the venom of vipers is on their lips. Selah
- Matt 23:27–28Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity.
- Ps 57:4My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
- Jer 9:3–5“They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” declares the LORD.
- Ezek 13:7Haven’t you seen a false vision and spoken a lying divination when you proclaim, ‘Thus declares the LORD,’ even though I have not spoken?
- Jas 3:5–8In 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.
- Ps 52:2Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.
- Matt 12:34–35You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
- Isa 59:3For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice.
- Rom 3:4Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.”
- Ps 36:3The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and well-doing.
- Jer 5:16Their quivers are like open graves; they are all mighty men.
- Deut 32:33Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.
- Ps 12:3–4May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue.
- Job 20:14–16yet in his stomach his food sours into the venom of cobras within him.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 3:13 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 Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.