Psalms 52:4
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
You love all devouring words, O you deceitful tongue.
American King James Version (AKJV)
You love all devouring words, O you deceitful tongue.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Thou lovest all devouring words, thou deceitful tongue.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Destruction is in all your words, O false tongue.
Webster's Revision
Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.
World English Bible
You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.
Barnes's Psalms 52:4 Bible Commentary
Thou lovest all devouring words - All words that tend to devour or "swallow up" reputation and happiness. Luther, "Thou speakest gladly all things (anything) that will serve to destruction." Anything, everything, that will serve to ruin people. The word rendered "devouring" - בלע bela‛ - occurs only here and in Jeremiah 51:44, though the verb from which it is derived occurs frequently: Isaiah 28:4; Exodus 7:12; Jonah 2:1 Jonah 1:17; Genesis 41:7, Genesis 41:24, et al. The verb means to swallow; and then, to consume or destroy.
O thou deceitful tongue - Margin, "and the deceitful tongue." The sense is best expressed in the text. It is an address to the tongue as loving deceit or fraud.
