Bible Strands
Psalms 12:3
May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses Yahweh in a prayer against a community of deceitful speakers who lie to one another and harbor a double heart. The moment occurs within a lament where the speaker witnesses the rise of arrogant, self-exalting speech.
The words — The Hebrew verb יַכְרֵת (yakh.Ret) literally means "may he cut off," directed at שִׂפְתֵי חֲלָקוֹת (lips of flatterers) and לָשׁוֹן מְדַבֶּרֶת גְּדֹלוֹת (a tongue speaking great things).
The thread — The biblical pattern of destructive speech runs through Proverbs 18:21 on the life-and-death power of the tongue, Daniel 7:8 regarding a horn speaking arrogant words, and Revelation 13:5 where a beast is given authority to speak blasphemous words.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to acknowledge that self-justifying and deceptive speech provokes divine judgment. It demands a rejection of linguistic arrogance and a submission of one's words to God's authority.
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
The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:
Cross-references
- Proverbs 18:21 Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
- Daniel 7:8 While I was contemplating the horns, suddenly another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like those of a man and a mouth that spoke words of arrogance.
- Revelation 13:5 The beast was given a mouth to speak arrogant and blasphemous words, and authority to act for 42 months.
- Psalms 17:10 They have closed their callous hearts; their mouths speak with arrogance.
- Exodus 15:9 The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’
- 1 Samuel 2:3 Do not boast so proudly, or let arrogance come from your mouth, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by Him actions are weighed.
- 1 Samuel 17:43 “Am I a dog,” he said to David, “that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
- 2 Kings 19:23 Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest outposts, the densest of its forests.
- Psalms 73:8 They mock and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.
- Ezekiel 28:2 “Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord GOD says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god.