Bible Strands
Psalms 52:2
Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — David addresses Doeg the Edomite immediately after Doeg reported David's visit to Ahimelech to King Saul. The psalmist confronts a specific betrayer during a moment of acute political and personal danger.
The words — The Hebrew לְשׁוֹנֶ֑ךָ (le.sho.Ne./kha, "your tongue") and עֹֽשֵׂ֥ה רְמִיָּֽה ('o.Seh re.mi.Yah, "worker of deceit") identify the subject and his character. The phrase כְּתַעַר מְלֻטָּשׁ (ke.Ta.'ar me.lu.Tash, "like a sharpened razor") literally describes how the tongue actively plots (תַּחְשֹ֣ב, tach.sho) destruction (הַוּוֹת, ha.vot).
The thread — This depiction of speech as a lethal instrument runs parallel to Proverbs 18:21 on the life-and-death power of the tongue and Psalm 57:4, where adversaries' tongues are compared to spears and arrows. The condemnation of calculated falsehood aligns with Proverbs 6:16 regarding what the Lord detests.
Why it lands — The text explicitly states that a named traitor uses his speech to systematically engineer ruin rather than merely tell lies. It requires the reader to recognize that malicious words are deliberate weapons demanding clear-eyed assessment, not casual dismissal.
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
Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 18:21 Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
- Proverbs 6:16 There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him:
- Psalms 57:4 My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
- Proverbs 12:18 Speaking rashly is like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
- Psalms 59:7 See what they spew from their mouths—sharp words from their lips: “For who can hear us?”
- Jeremiah 9:3 “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.
- Psalms 50:19 You unleash your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit.
- Psalms 64:2 Hide me from the scheming of the wicked, from the mob of workers of iniquity,
- Psalms 109:2 For wicked and deceitful mouths open against me; they speak against me with lying tongues.
- Psalms 120:2 Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips and a deceitful tongue.