Bible Strands
Psalms 120:3
What will He do to you, and what will be added to you, O deceitful tongue?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses a "deceitful tongue" directly, immediately following his plea for deliverance from lying lips in the preceding verse. The speaker is the psalmist, confronting the instrument of falsehood that threatens his soul at this moment of distress.
The words — The Hebrew יִתֵּן (yi.Ten) translates literally as "will anyone give" and יוֹסִיף (yo.Sif) as "will anyone add." These verbs frame the rhetorical question regarding the tongue's impending punishment.
The thread — The rhetorical questioning of a subject's ultimate fate in this verse mirrors the structural pattern found in Job 27:8, Matthew 16:26, and Romans 6:21.
Why it lands — The text demands a reader recognize that deceptive speech invites divine judgment rather than reward. It calls for immediate reliance on God's deliverance before the tongue's consequences are fully realized.
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
What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?
Cross-references
- Job 27:8 For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
- Matthew 16:26 What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
- Romans 6:21 What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death.