Bible Strands
Psalms 36:3
The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and well-doing.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God directly, describing a wicked individual whose eyes are too full of conceit to recognize his own sin.
The words — The Hebrew terms אָוֶן (aven) and חָדַל (chadal) denote wickedness/deceit and the cessation of prudent action, respectively.
The thread — This description of corrupt speech and moral decline parallels passages like Psalms 55:21, Jeremiah 4:22, and Psalms 10:7, which detail deceitful or foolish speech.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that persistent deceit replaces practical wisdom and good conduct, leaving the individual without moral accountability.
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 words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.
Cross-references
- Psalms 55:21 His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.
- Jeremiah 4:22 “For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
- Psalms 10:7 His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and violence; trouble and malice are under his tongue.
- Matthew 22:15 Then the Pharisees went out and conspired to trap Jesus in His words.
- 1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.
- 1 Samuel 11:6 When Saul heard their words, the Spirit of God rushed upon him, and he burned with great anger.
- 1 Samuel 13:13 “You have acted foolishly,” Samuel declared. “You have not kept the command that the LORD your God gave you; if you had, the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.
- 1 Samuel 15:26 “I will not return with you,” Samuel replied. “For you have rejected the word of the LORD, and He has rejected you as king over Israel.”
- 1 Samuel 16:14 Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a spirit of distress from the LORD began to torment him.
- 1 Samuel 18:21 “I will give her to David,” Saul thought, “so that she may be a snare to him, and the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “For a second time now you can be my son-in-law.”