Bible Strands
Psalms 116:11
In my alarm I said, “All men are liars!”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks in first person during a moment of acute distress, positioned between a confession of faith in verse 10 and a vow of gratitude in verse 12.
The words — The phrase בְּחָפְזִי (be-chafzi) means “in my haste” or “in my alarm,” and כֹּזֵב (kozev) literally means “a liar.”
The thread — The psalmist’s immediate conclusion about human untrustworthiness appears in the same emotional register as Psalms 31:22 and corresponds to the biblical pattern where divine truthfulness is contrasted with human failure, as noted in Jeremiah 9:4 and Romans 3:4.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge the reality of human fallibility without letting that observation override the preceding commitment to believe or the following commitment to repay God.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I said in my haste, All men are liars.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 9:4 “Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander.
- Romans 3:4 Certainly 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.”
- Psalms 31:22 In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from Your sight!” But You heard my plea for mercy when I called to You for help.
- Psalms 62:9 Lowborn men are but a vapor; the exalted are but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
- 1 Samuel 27:1 David, however, said to himself, “One of these days now I will be swept away by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will stop searching for me all over Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”
- 2 Kings 4:16 And Elisha declared, “At this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord,” she said. “Do not lie to your maidservant, O man of God.”