Psalm 52:4

Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) Devouring words.—Literally, words of swallowing, such as swallow down (comp. Psalm 5:9, where the throat is called “an open sepulchre”) a neighbour’s life, honour, and goods.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 52:4-5. Thou lovest all devouring words — Hebrew, דברי בלע, dibree balang, all the words of devouring, or destruction; that is, such calumnies as are the most pernicious in their nature, and as may most effectually involve others in utter destruction: such as might swallow up and destroy a whole family at once. God shall likewise destroy thee for ever — That is, totally and unavoidably, as thou didst destroy the priests. He shall pluck thee — Violently, irresistibly, and suddenly remove thee, as the word יסחךְ, jissachacha, signifies; out of thy dwelling-place — From thy house and lands, and all the wages of thy unrighteousness. Or, out of his, that is, the Lord’s tabernacle, from which thou didst cut off the Lord’s priests. Therefore God shall excommunicate thee from his presence, and from the society of the faithful. And though thou seemest to have taken very deep root, and to be more firmly settled in this barbarous cruelty; yet God shall root thee out of the land of the living, out of this world; shall pluck thee up by the very roots, and destroy thee, both root and branch. Which must have been very terrible to him who had his whole portion in this life.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

52:1-5 Those that glory in sin, glory in their shame. The patience and forbearance of God are abused by sinners, to the hardening of their hearts in their wicked ways. But the enemies in vain boast in their mischief, while we have God's mercy to trust in. It will not save us from the guilt of lying, to be able to say, there was some truth in what we said, if we make it appear otherwise than it was. The more there is of craft and contrivance in any wickedness, the more there is of Satan in it. When good men die, they are transplanted from the land of the living on earth, to heaven, the garden of the Lord, where they shall take root for ever; but when wicked men die, they are rooted out, to perish for ever. The believer sees that God will destroy those who make not him their strength.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. all-devouring—literally, "swallowing," which utterly destroy (compare Ps 21:9; 35:25).

The Treasury of David

4 Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.

5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.

Psalm 52:4

"Thou lovest.", Thou hast a taste, a gusto for evil language. "All devouring words." There are words that, like boa constrictors, swallow men whole, or like lions, rend men to pieces; these words evil minds are fond of. Their oratory is evermore furious and bloody. That which will most readily provoke the lowest passions they are sure to employ, and they think such pandering to the madness of the wicked to be eloquence of a high order. "O thou deceitful tongue." Men can manage to say a great many furious things, and yet cover all over with the pretext of justice. They claim that they are jealous for the right, but the truth is they are determined to put down truth and holiness, and craftily go about it under this transparent pretence.

Psalm 52:5

"God shall likewise destroy thee for ever." Fain would the persecutor destroy the church, and therefore God shall destroy him, pull down his house, pluck up his roots, and make an end of him. "He shall take thee away." God shall extinguish his coal and sweep him away like the ashes of the hearth; he would have quenched the truth, and God shall quench him. "And pluck thee out of thy dwelling place," like a plant torn from the place where it grew, or a captive dragged from his home. Ahimelech and his brother priests were cut off from their abode, and so should those be who compassed and contrived their murder. "And root thee out of the land of the living." The persecutor shall be eradicated, stubbed up by the root, cut up root and branch. He sought the death of others and death shall fall upon him. He troubled the land of the living, and he shall be banished to that land where the wicked cease from troubling. Those who will not "let live" have no right to "live." God will turn the tables on malicious men, and mete to them a portion with their own measure. "Selah." Pause again, and behold the divine justice proving itself more than a match for human sin.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Devouring words, such as might swallow up and destroy a whole family at once.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou lovest all devouring words,.... Or "words of swallowing up" (y); such as lies, calumnies, and detractions are, which devour the characters and reputations of men, and are the cause sometimes of their utter ruin and destruction; of the devouring and blasphemous words of antichrist see Revelation 13:5;

O thou deceitful tongue; See Gill on Psalm 52:2.

(y) "verba absorptionis", Vatablus, Gejerus, Schmidt.

Geneva Study Bible

Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. devouring words] Lit., words of swallowing up. Cp. the use of the verb in Psalm 35:25, “We have swallowed him up”: and Psalm 53:4.

O thou deceitful tongue] This rendering is certainly preferable to that of the margin, ‘and the deceitful tongue.’ The bold identification of the offender with the offending member is far more vigorous, and perfectly legitimate. Cp. Psalm 120:2-3; Psalm 12:3; 1 Kings 19:18.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Thou lovest all devouring words. "Devouring words" are words that cause ruin and destruction. O thou deceitful tongue! or (as in the margin), and the deceitful tongue. Psalm 52:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

It is bad enough to behave wickedly, but bad in the extreme to boast of it at the same time as an heroic act. Doeg, who causes a massacre, not, however, by the strength of his hand, but by the cunning of his tongue, does this. Hence he is sarcastically called גּבּור (cf. Isaiah 5:22). David's cause, however, is not therefore lost; for it is the cause of God, whose loving-kindness endures continually, without allowing itself to be affected, like the favour of men, by calumny. Concerning הוּות vid., on Psalm 5:10. לשׁון is as usual treated as fem; עשׂה רמיּה (according to the Masora with Tsere) is consequently addressed to a person. In Psalm 52:5 רע after אהבתּ has the Dagesh that is usual also in other instances according to the rule of the אתי מרחיק, especially in connection with the letters כפתבגד (with which Resh is associated in the Book of Jezira, Michlol 96b, cf. 63b).

(Note: אתי מרחיק is the name by which the national grammarians designate a group of two words, of which the first, ending with Kametz or Segol, has the accent on the penult., and of which the second is a monosyllable, or likewise is accented on the penult. The initial consonant of the second word in this case receives a Dagesh, in order that it may not, in consequence of the first ictus of the group of words "coming out of the distance," i.e., being far removed, be too feebly and indistinctly uttered. This dageshing, however, only takes place when the first word is already of itself Milel, or at least, as e.g., מצאה בּית, had a half-accented penult., and not when it is from the very first Milra and is only become Milel by means of the retreating of the accent, as עשׂה פלא, Psalm 78:12, cf. Deuteronomy 24:1. The penultima-accent has a greater lengthening force in the former case than in the latter; the following syllables are therefore uttered more rapidly in the first case, and the Dagesh is intended to guard against the third syllable being too hastily combined with the second. Concerning the rule, vid., Baer's Thorath Emeth, p. 29f.)

The מן or מטּוב and מדּבּר is not meant to affirm that he loves good, etc., less than evil, etc., but that he does not love it at all (cf. Psalm 118:8., Habakkuk 2:16). The music which comes in after Psalm 52:5 has to continue the accusations con amarezza without words. Then in Psalm 52:6 the singing again takes them up, by addressing the adversary with the words "thou tongue of deceit" (cf. Psalm 120:3), and by reproaching him with loving only such utterances as swallow up, i.e., destroy without leaving a trace behind (בּלע, pausal form of בלע, like בּצע in Psalm 119:36, cf. the verb in Psalm 35:25, 2 Samuel 17:16; 2 Samuel 20:19.), his neighbour's life and honour and goods. Hupfeld takes Psalm 52:6 as a second object; but the figurative and weaker expression would then follow the unfigurative and stronger one, and "to love a deceitful tongue" might be said with reference to this character of tongue as belonging to another person, not with reference to his own.