You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth.
Parallel Translations
-
You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth.
-
Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.
-
(52-5) Thou lovest evil more than good; falsehood rather than speaking righteousness. Selah
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Psalms 52:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 9:3-5 “They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. They have grown strong in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says Yahweh. “Everyone beware of his neighbor, and don’t trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go around like a slanderer. Friends deceive each other, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves commiting iniquity.
- John 8:44 You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.
- 2 Timothy 3:4 traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
- Micah 3:2 You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones;
- Revelation 22:15 Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
- Jeremiah 4:22 “For my people are foolish. They don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don’t know how to do good.”
- Jeremiah 9:8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.
- Romans 1:25 who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
- Psalms 62:4 They fully intend to throw him down from his lofty place. They delight in lies. They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Hebrew, righteousness.
Hebrew, righteousness.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 52:3 Thou lovest evil more than good; [and]…
Psa 52:3 Thou lovest evil more than good; [and] lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.
Ver. 3. Thou lovest evil more than good] Indeed, evil only, and not at all good, whatever thou pretendest. Thy heart is naught, and thence it is that thy tongue is so mischievous, as stinking breath cometh from corrupt inwards.
Read full note →
And lying, rather than to speak righteousness] For thou hast cunningly insinuated, for thine own base ends and against thine own conscience, that those innocent and faithful priests were of the combination; and so hast built thyself upon their ruins, thou false sycophant, artifex doli. Selah.
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 Evil and
Evil and
good may be here taken, either,
Read full note →
1. Morally; Thou lovest wickedness and not goodness; for so comparative passages are oft meant, as Psa 118:8, It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man, i.e. It is good to trust God, but it is not good to trust man; for this is absolutely forbidden, Psa 146:3; Jer 17:5. Or,
2. Physically. Thou lovest to speak or act to the hurt and ruin of others, rather than to their benefit. Thou mightest, without any danger to thyself, have been silent concerning Ahimelech’s fact, or have put a favourable construction upon it; but thou hast chosen rather to misrepresent and aggravate it. He saith,
thou lovest, to imply that he did this not by any constraint or necessity, but by choice, and with complacency, and out of a love to mischief.
Lying, whereof Doeg was guilty, partly in reporting that he (i.e. Ahimelech) inquired of the Lord for him, (David,) 1Sa 22:10, which he did not, 1Sa 21, where all that history is recorded; and partly in putting a false interpretation upon what he did, in giving him victuals and a sword, as if he had done it knowingly, and in conspiracy with David, and against Saul, as appears by comparing Doeg’s answer with Saul’s inquiry, 1Sa 22:7,8.
Righteousness, i.e. the whole and naked truth, without any such lying or malicious comment upon it, which was but an act of justice due from thee to any man, and much more on the behalf of so innocent and sacred a person.
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 lovest evil more than good,.... Indeed not good…
Thou lovest evil more than good,.... Indeed not good at all; such comparatives being strong negatives; see Psa 118:8; a wicked man loves evil, and nothing else; his carnal mind being enmity to all that is good
and lying rather than to speak righteousness; as appears by his affirming that Ahimelech inquired of the Lord for David, when he did not, Sa1 22:10; and by suffering some things to pass for truths which were falsehoods, when it lay in his power to have disproved them: and such a lover of lies is antichrist; see Ti1 4:2.
Read full note →
Selah; on this word; see Gill on Psa 3:2. The Targum renders the word "Selah" here "for ever", as in Psa 52:5.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. Thou lovest evil] This was a finished…
Verse 3. Thou lovest evil] This was a finished character. Let us note the particulars:
1. He boasted in the power to do evil.
Read full note →
2. His tongue devised, studied, planned, and spoke mischiefs.
3. He was a deceitful worker.
4. He loved evil and not good.
5. He loved lying; his delight was in falsity.
6. Every word that tended to the destruction of others he loved.
7. His tongue was deceitful; he pretended friendship while his heart was full of enmity, Ps 52:1-4. Now behold the punishment: -
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Thou lovest evil more than good - Thou dost…
Thou lovest evil more than good - Thou dost prefer to do injury to others, rather than to do them good. In the case referred to, instead of aiding the innocent, the persecuted, and the wronged, he had attempted to reveal the place where he might be found, and where an enraged enemy might have an opportunity of wreaking his vengeance upon him.
And lying rather than to speak righteousness - He preferred a lie to the truth; and, when he supposed that his own interest would be subserved by it, he preferred a falsehood that would promote that interest, rather than a simple statement of the truth. The “lying” in this case was that which was “implied” in his being desirous of giving up David, or betraying him to Saul - as if David was a bad man, and as if the suspicions of Saul were wellfounded. He preferred to give his countenance to a falsehood in regard to him, rather than to state the exact truth in reference to his character. His conduct in this was strongly in contrast with that of Ahimelech, who, when arraigned before Saul, declared his belief that David was innocent; his firm conviction that David was true and loyal. “For” that fidelity he lost his life, 1Sa 22:14. Doeg was willing to lend countenance to the suspicions of Saul, and practically to represent David as a traitor to the king. The word “Selah” here is doubtless a mere musical pause. See the notes at Psa 3:2. It determines nothing in regard to the sense of the passage.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. Evil more than good—The sense is, evil and…
3. Evil more than good—The sense is, evil and not good, falsehood and not speaking “righteousness.” The good and the true were not loved at all.
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 3. evil more than good] Evil rather than good,…
3. evil more than good] Evil rather than good, evil and not good. The meaning is not merely that he has a preference for evil, but that he chooses evil instead of good, like the nobles censured in Mic_3:2, “who hate the good and love the evil.”
righteousness] Not merely truth, but truth regarded as promoting and securing justice. The aim and result of his falsehoods was injustice.
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.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Thou lovest evil more than good. To "love evil"…
Thou lovest evil more than good. To "love evil" is to have reached the lowest depth of depravity. It is to say, with Milton"s Satan, "Evil, be thou my good!" And lying rather than to speak righteousness (see the comment on ver. 2). Doeg"s crimes seem to have arisen out of a mere love of evil.
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. 3. Thou lovest evil more than good. He…
Ver. 3. Thou lovest evil more than good. He loved not good at all. If both had been equally profitable and pleasant, he would have preferred evil. And lying rather than to speak righteousness. He was more at home at lying than at truth. He spake not the truth except by accident, but he delighted heartily in falsehood. SELAH. Let us pause and look at the proud blustering liar. Doeg is gone, but other dogs bark at the Lord's people. Saul's cattle master is buried, but the devil still has his drovers, who fain would hurry the saints like sheep to the slaughter.
Ver. 3. Thou lovest evil more than good. --Thou hast loved evil, he says, more than good, not by simply preferring it, but by substituting it; so that in the stead of good he hath done evil, and that from the inmost love of his soul, bent upon evil; wherefore he does not say that he admitted, but loved evil, not moral only, but physical, for the destruction of his neighbours; so to have loved it, that he willed nothing but evil, being averse to all good. Hermann Venema.
Read full note →
Ver. 3. In what cases men clearly love evil more than good.
Psalms 52:4*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
David continues speaking to the "mighty man" of Psalms 5:1
Read full note →
lying rather than speaking righteousness
"you love lying more than speaking what is right"
translationWords
love
righteous
selah
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 52:3 Deceptive speech changes one’s character.
52:3 Deceptive speech changes one’s character.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.