“You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.
Parallel Translations
-
“You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.
-
Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.
-
Thou hast let loose thy mouth for evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Psalms 50:19 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 10:7 His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.
- Psalms 52:2-4 Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth. You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue.
- Jeremiah 9:5 Friends deceive each other, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves commiting iniquity.
- Revelation 21:8 But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
- Psalms 5:9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their heart is destruction. Their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue.
- Psalms 55:21 His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
- Isaiah 59:3-4 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness. No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity, and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and give birth to iniquity.
- Romans 3:13-14 “Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
- James 3:5-9 So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest! And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna. For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and sea creature, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind; but nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in the image of God.
- Psalms 12:2-3 Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart. May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that boasts,
- Psalms 36:3-4 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good. He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He doesn’t abhor evil.
- Psalms 55:12 For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, then I would have hidden myself from him.
- Psalms 64:3-5 who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words, to shoot innocent men from ambushes. They shoot at him suddenly and fearlessly. They encourage themselves in evil plans. They talk about laying snares secretly. They say, “Who will see them?”
- Hosea 4:2 There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (9 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 50:19 Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and…
Psa 50:19 Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.
Ver. 19. Thou givest thy mouth to evil] Heb. Thou sendest, the devil borroweth thy mouth, and thou lettest him have it.
Read full note →
And thy tongue frameth deceit] Heb. joineth, knitteth, compacteth.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Thou givest, Heb. thou sendest forth, to wit, free;…
Thou givest, Heb. thou sendest forth, to wit, free; for the word is used of men’s dismissing their wives or their servants, whom they left to their freedom. Thou hast an unbridled tongue, and castest off all restraints of God’s law, and of thy own conscience, and givest thy tongue liberty to speak what thou pleasest, though it be offensive and dishonourable to God, and injurious to thy neighbour, or to thy own soul; which is justly produced as an evidence of their hypocrisy.
To evil; either to sinful or mischievous speeches.
Read full note →
Frameth deceit, i.e. uttereth lies or fair words, wherewith to circumvent those who deal with them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thou sittest,.... Either in the chair of Moses, or…
Thou sittest,.... Either in the chair of Moses, or on the seat of judgment, in the great sanhedrim of the nation; or, as Aben Ezra paraphrases it, "in the seat of the scornful";
and speakest against thy brother; even to pass sentence upon him, to put him to death for professing faith in Christ, Mat 10:21;
Read full note →
thou slanderest thine own mother's son; the apostles and disciples of Christ, who were their brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh; and even our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who was bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Thou givest thy mouth to evil - Margin, as…
Thou givest thy mouth to evil - Margin, as in Hebrew, “thou sendest.” That is, they gave it up to evil; they employed it in evil: in falsehood, malice, deceit, slander, deception, detraction.
And thy tongue frameth deceit - The word rendered “frameth” means properly to bind, to fasten; and then, to contrive, to frame. The meaning is, that it was employed in the work of deceit; that is, it was employed in devising and executing purposes of fraud and falsehood.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 19. Mouth to evil… tongue frameth deceit—Wholly given to…
19. Mouth to evil… tongue frameth deceit—Wholly given to lies. Their business is to devise deceitful pretexts for unlawful gains and lustful pleasures.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 19. Thou hast let loose thy mouth for evil,
19. Thou hast let loose thy mouth for evil,
And thy tongue contriveth deceit.
Read full note →
Giving way to unbridled speech, evil in substance and mischievous in aim: contriving a whole structure of deliberate falsehoods.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (19) Givest.—Literally, lettest loose.
(19) Givest.—Literally, lettest loose.
Frameth.—Literally, weaves. So LXX. To weave snares is a common figure in all languages. Comp.
Read full note →
“My brain, more busy than the labouring spider,
Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies.”
SHAKSPERE: 2 Henry VI. 3:2.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue…
Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit; rather, thou hast loosed thy mouth to evil; i.e. given it liberty to utter all manner of wicked speech; and especially thou hast used mouth and tongue to cozen and deceive.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 19. Thou givest thy mouth to evil. Sins…
Ver. 19. Thou givest thy mouth to evil. Sins against the ninth commandment are here mentioned. The man who surrenders himself to the habit of slander is a vile hypocrite if he associates himself with the people of God. A man's health is readily judged by his tongue. A foul mouth, a foul heart. Some slander almost as often as they breathe, and yet are great upholders of the church, and great sticklers for holiness. To what depths will not they go in evil, who delight in spreading it with their tongues? And thy tongue frameth deceit. This is a more deliberate sort of slander, where the man dexterously elaborates false witness, and concocts methods of defamation. There is an ingenuity of calumny in some men, and, alas! even in some who are thought to be followers of the Lord Jesus. They manufacture falsehoods, weave them in their loom, hammer them on their anvil, and then retail their wares in every company. Are these accepted with God? Though they bring their wealth to the altar, and speak eloquently of truth and of salvation, have they any favour with God? We should blaspheme the holy God if we were to think so. They are corrupt in his sight, a stench in his nostrils. He will cast all liars into hell. Let them preach, and pray, and sacrifice as they will; till they become truthful, the God of truth loathes them utterly.
Ver. 19. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, etc. Thou givest. Hebrew, thou sendest forth; to wit, free; for the word is used of men dismissing their wives or their servants, whom they left to their freedom. Thou hast an unbridled tongue, and castest off all restraints of God's law, and of thine own conscience, and givest thy tongue liberty to speak what you please, though it be offensive and dishonourable to God, and injurious to thy neighbour, or to thy own soul; which is justly produced as an evidence of their hypocrisy. To evil, either to sinful or mischievous speeches. Frameth deceit, i.e., uttereth lies or fair words, wherewith to circumvent those who deal with them. Matthew Poole.
Read full note →
Ver. 19. The ninth commandment is now added to the other two, as being habitually violated by the person here addressed. J. A. Alexander.
None.
Psalms 50:20*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.