“Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips.”
Parallel Translations
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“Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips.”
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Their throte is an open sepulchre with their tounges they have disceaved: the poyson of Aspes is vnder their lippes.
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Their throte is an open sepulchre: they haue vsed their tongues to deceit: the poyson of aspes is vnder their lippes.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Romans 3:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 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 140:3 They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. Viper’s poison is under their lips.
- Matthew 23:27-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
- Psalms 57:4 My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
- 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.
- Psalms 52:2 Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
- Isaiah 59:3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.
- Ezekiel 13:7 Haven’t you seen a false vision, and haven’t you spoken a lying divination, in that you say, ‘Yahweh says;’ but I have not spoken?”
- Matthew 12:34-35 You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things.
- James 3:5-8 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.
- Psalms 36:3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
- Jeremiah 5:16 Their quiver is an open tomb. They are all mighty men.
- Romans 3:4 May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “that you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.”
- Deuteronomy 32:33 Their wine is the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps.
- Psalms 12:3-4 May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that boasts, who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?”
- Job 20:14-16 yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him. He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly. He will suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue will kill him.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (16 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 13. It is further added, Their throat is an…
13. It is further added, Their throat is an open grave; that is, a gulf to swallow up men. It is more than if he had said, that they were devourers (ἀνθρωποφάγους — men-eaters;) for it is an intimation of extreme barbarity, when the throat is said to be so great a gulf, that it is sufficient to swallow down and devour men whole and entire. Their tongues are deceitful, and, the poison of asps is under their lips, import the same thing,
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their…
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Ver. 13. The poison of the asps] Of that sort of asps that spit their venom far from them upon the bystanders. (πρυαδες.) There is a great deal of such vermin and venom in that newly found world of wickedness, the tongue, Jas 3:6. It is easy to observe that St Paul here, making the anatomy of a natural man, stands more on the organs of speaking than all other members, and showeth how his tongue is tipped with fraud, his lips tainted with venom, his mouth full of gall, his throat a gaping grave, his tongue as a rapier to run men through with, and his throat as a sepulchre to bury them in. As for the asp, they write of her, That whereas her poison is so deadly, that the part infected cannot be cured but by cutting off, succurrit periclitantibus benignior natura, et noxiosissimo animali caliginosos obtutus dedit. (Jo. Wover.) Aspidi (saith Pliny, viii. 23) hebetes oculi dati, eosque non in fronte, sed in temporibus habet.
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 Their throat is an open sepulchre; he proceeds to…
Their throat is an open sepulchre; he proceeds to instance in the corruption of man with respect to the members of his body; and he mentions the organs of speech in four several expressions, much to the same purpose: the first is allegorical, taken out of Psa 5:9, upon which see the annotations.
With their tongues they have used deceit; this text doth plainly express the corruption of the tongue, because of lies, calumnies, perjuries, flatteries; and it is taken out of Jer 9:3-5.
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The poison of asps is under their lips: the third expression is allegorical, as the first, taken out of Psa 140:3, upon which see the annotations.
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 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. These…
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. These words are taken from Psa 10:7, by cursing is meant, cursing of God, which is sometimes internal with the heart, and sometimes external with the mouth, as here; and of all good men, though without cause, and to no purpose with respect to the persons they curse, since God has blessed them, and they are blessed, and greatly to their own detriment, for, in the issue, their curses will be turned against themselves. There is also a cursing of superiors, as parents, masters, magistrates, kings, and governors; which is a sore evil, and attended with bad consequences; likewise of themselves, and their fellow creatures: and "the mouth being full of it", denotes the frequency of the sin; scarce anything else comes out of it but cursing; which discovers the sad corruption of the heart; "for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh", Mat 12:34. By "bitterness" is meant, either sin in general, which is "an evil and bitter thing", Jer 2:19, in its nature and effects; or sinful words, such as oaths, curses, imprecations, all wrathful and deceitful words.
, in its nature and effects; or sinful words, such as oaths, curses, imprecations, all wrathful and deceitful words.
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Romans 3:15
rom 3:15
rom 3:15
rom 3:15Their feet are swift to shed blood. The sins of the heart and mouth are before described, and now the sins of action are taken notice of; for "the feet" are the instruments of motion and action: and when these are said to be "swift to shed blood", it denotes the readiness and eagerness of men, to murder innocent creatures; which shows the dreadful malice and hatred that is in them. The words are cited from Isa 59:7, and seem to point at the times of Manasseh, who shed so much innocent blood, as to fill Jerusalem with it from one end to the other.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Their throat - Is noisome and dangerous as an…
Their throat - Is noisome and dangerous as an open sepulchre. Observe the progress of evil discourse, proceeding out of the heart, through the throat, tongue, lips, till the whole mouth is filled therewith. The poison of asps - Infectious, deadly backbiting, tale-bearing, evil-speaking, is under (for honey is on) their lips. An asp is a venomous kind of serpent. Psalm v, 9; Psalm cxl, 3.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre] This…
Verse 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre] This and all the following verses to the end of the 18th Ro 3:13-18 are found in the Septuagint, but not in the Hebrew text; and it is most evident that it was from this version that the apostle quoted, as the verses cannot be found in any other place with so near an approximation to the apostle's meaning and words. The verses in question, however, are not found in the Alexandrian MS. But they exist in the Vulgate, the AEthiopic, and the Arabic. As the most ancient copies of the Septuagint do not contain these verses, some contend that the apostle has quoted them from different parts of Scripture; and later transcribers of the Septuagint, finding that the 10th, 11th, and 12th, verses were quoted from the xivth Psalm, Ps 14:3 imagined that the rest were found originally there too, and so incorporated them in their copies, from the apostle's text.
Their throat is an open sepulchre-By their malicious and wicked words they bury, as it were, the reputation of all men. The whole of this verse appears to belong to their habit of lying, defamation, slandering, &c., by which they wounded, blasted, and poisoned the reputation of others.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Their throat ... - This expression is taken from…
Their throat ... - This expression is taken from Psa 5:9, literally from the Septuagint. The design of the psalm is to reprove those who were false, traitorous, slanderous, etc. Psa 5:6. The psalmist has the sin of deceit, and falsehood, and slander particularly in his eye. The expressions here are to be interpreted in accordance with that. The sentiment here may be, as the grave is ever open to receive all into it, that is, into destruction, so the mouth or the throat of the slanderer is ever open to swallow up the peace and happiness of all. Or it may mean, as from an open sepulchre there proceeds an offensive and pestilential vapor, so from the mouths of slanderous persons there proceed noisome and ruinous words. “(Stuart.)” I think the connection demands the former interpretation.
With their tongues ... - In their conversation, their promises, etc., they have been false, treacherous, and unfaithful.
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The poison of asps - This is taken literally from the Septuagint of Psa 140:3. The asp, or adder, is a species of serpent whose poison is of such active operation that it kills almost the instant that it penetrates, and that without remedy. It is small, and commonly lies concealed, often in the “sand” in a road, and strikes the traveler before he sees it. It is found chiefly in Egypt and Lybia. It is said by ancient writers that the celebrated Cleopatra, rather than be carried a captive to Rome by Augustus, suffered an asp to bite her in the arm, by which she soon died. The precise species of serpent which is here meant by the psalmist, however, cannot be ascertained. All that is necessary to understand the passage is, that it refers to a serpent whose bite was deadly, and rapid in its execution.
Is under their lips - The poison of the serpent is contained in a small bag which is concealed at the root of the tooth. When the tooth is struck into the flesh, the poison is pressed out, through a small hole in the tooth, into the wound. Whether the psalmist was acquainted with that fact, or referred to it, cannot be known: his words do not of necessity imply it. The sentiment is, that as the poison of the asp is rapid, certain, spreading quickly through the system, and producing death; so the words of the slanderer are deadly, pestiferous, quickly destroying the reputation and happiness of man. They are as subtle, as insinuating, and as deadly to the reputation, as the poison of the adder is to the body. Wicked people in the Bible are often compared to serpents; Mat 23:33; Gen 49:17.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Their, &c.--From generals, the apostle here comes to particulars,…
Their, &c.--From generals, the apostle here comes to particulars, culling from different parts of Scripture passages which speak of depravity as it affects the different members of the body; as if to show more affectingly how "from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness" in us.
throat is an open sepulchre-- (Psa 5:9); that is, "What proceeds out of their heart, and finds vent in speech and action through the throat, is like the pestilential breath of an open grave."
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with their tongues they have used deceit-- (Psa 5:9); that is, "That tongue which is man's glory (Psa 16:9; Psa 57:8) is prostituted to the purposes of deception."
the poison of asps is under their lips-- (Psa 140:3): that is, "Those lips which should 'drop as an honeycomb,' and 'feed many,' and 'give thanks unto His name' (Sol 4:11; Pro 10:21; Heb 13:15), are employed to secrete and to dart deadly poison."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 13. An open sepulchre—As swallowing the once living; and,…
13. An open sepulchre—As swallowing the once living; and, like the whited sepulchres of the Saviour’s words, full of dead men’s bones.
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 13. an open sepulchre] Perhaps as “uttering abomination.” “Emitting…
13. an open sepulchre] Perhaps as “uttering abomination.” “Emitting the noisome exhalations of a putrid heart (Bp Home on Psa_5:9).
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 (13) Their throat is an open sepulchre—i.e., their speech…
(13) Their throat is an open sepulchre—i.e., their speech is at once corrupt and corrupting. It is compared to a “yawning grave”—not merely to a pit into which a man may fall, but to a sort of pestiferous chasm yawning and ravening, as it were, after its prey.
They have used deceit.—Strictly, they were deceiving; a continued action brought up to the present time.
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Under their lips.—As the poison-bag of the serpent is directly under the kind of tooth by which its venom is discharged.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre. Thus far…
13. Their throat is an open sepulchre. Thus far the statements have been general. Now we come to particulars. If the grave is opened, corruption is manifest. So corruption comes from the throats of men when they speak. The poison of asps. The venom of falsehood, as deadly as the deadly serpent.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 13. “Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their…
13. “Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips.” This is an awful description of the above who depart from God. This picture is progressive, this verse describing an advanced state of alienation from God.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain Their throat is an open sepulchre; With their tongues…
Their throat is an open sepulchre; With their tongues they have used deceit [ Psa_5:9 ]: The poison of asps is under their lips [ Psa_140:3 ]:
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Their ... Their
Their ... Their
The word "their" refers to the "Jews and Greeks" of Romans 3:9.
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Their throat is an open grave
The word "throat" is a metonym for everything that people say that is unrighteous and disgusting. Here "open grave" is a metaphor that refers to the stench of the evil words of the people. (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)
Their tongues have deceived
The word "tongues" is a metonym for the false words that people speak. AT: "People speak lies" (See: Metonymy)
The poison of snakes is under their lips
Here "poison of snakes" is a metaphor that is used to represent the great harm of the evil words that the people speak. The word "lips" refers to the words of the people. AT: "Their evil words injure people just like the poison of a venomous snake" (See: Metaphor and Metonymy)
Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness
Here "mouths" is a metonym that represents the evil words of the people. The word "full" exaggerates how often people speak bitterly and curse. AT: "They often speak curses and cruel words" (See: Metonymy and Hyperbole and Generalization)
translationWords
grave
tongue
deceive
curse
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 3:13-14 Paul here refers to sins of speech, mentioning…
3:13-14 Paul here refers to sins of speech, mentioning a different organ of speech in each of the four lines (talk in 3:13 is literally throat).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.