Add parallel Print Page Options

Lord, deliver my soul from lying lips,
    from a treacherous tongue.(A)

What will he inflict on you,
    O treacherous tongue,
    and what more besides?[a]
A warrior’s arrows
    sharpened with coals of brush wood![b](B)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 120:3 More besides: a common curse formula in Hebrew was “May the Lord do such and such evils to you [the evils being specified], and add still more to them,” cf. 1 Sm 3:17; 14:44; 25:22. Here the psalmist is at a loss for a suitable malediction.
  2. 120:4 Coals of brush wood: coals made from the stalk of the broom plant burn with intense heat. The psalmist thinks of lighted coals cast at his enemies.