Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 144:8

Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand [is] a right hand of falsehood.

8. vanity ] i.e. falsehood: cp. Psa 12:2; Psa 41:6.

their right hand &c.] Uplifted in swearing a solemn oath. Cp. Psa 106:26.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Those mouth speaketh vanity – Vain things; things not real and true; falsehood; lies. See the notes at Psa 24:4. The idea is, that what they said had no foundation in truth – no reality. Truth is solid and reliable; falsehood is unreliable and vain.

And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood – The meaning here seems to be that even under the solemnities of an oath, when they lifted up their hands to swear, when they solemnly appealed to God, there was no reliance to be placed on what they affirmed or promised. Oaths were taken by lifting up the right hand as toward God. See Gen 14:22; Exo 6:8 (Margin, and Hebrew); Deu 32:40.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Vanity; either,

1. Vain brags and threatenings, which shall come to nothing; or,

2. Vain and deceitful promises, or professions, or friendship. Their right hand; here mentioned either,

1. As it is used in swearing, to note their perjury; or rather,

2. As an instrument of action. Is a right hand of falsehood; deceiving either,

1. Themselves, by being unable to do what they designed; or,

2. Others, by not giving them that help which they promised to them.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Whose mouth speaketh vanity,…. Vain words, lies, flatteries, and deceit, Ps 12:2; when they speak loftily of themselves, and contemptuously of others; when they deliver out threatenings against some, and make fair promises to others; it is all vanity, and comes to nothing;

and their right hand [is] a right hand of falsehood; their strength and power to perform what they boast of, threaten, or promise, is fallacious, is mere weakness, and cannot effect anything; or their treaties, contracts, and covenants, they enter into and sign with their right hand, are not kept by them; they act the treacherous and deceitful part. The Latin interpreter of the Arabic version renders it, “their oath is an oath of iniquity”; and Ben Balaam in Aben Ezra, and R. Adnim in Ben Melech, say the word so signifies in the Arabic language; and Schultens m has observed the same: but the word in that language signifies the right hand as well as an oath, and need not be restrained to that; it is better to take it in the large sense, as Cocceius n does; whether they lifted up the hand to pray, or to swear; or gave it to covenant with, to make contracts and agreements; or stretched it out to work with; it was a right hand of falsehood.

m Observat. Philolog. p. 195. n Lexicon, col. 312.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(8) Right hand of falsehood.Most probably with allusion to the custom (see Psa. 106:26) of raising the right hand in taking an oath.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Psa 144:8. Whose mouth speaketh vanity, &c. Whose mouth uttereth falsehood, and whose right hand is a right hand of deceit: “For with that hand, as with a pledge, they confirmed the treaties of peace and leagues of friendship made with them; all which they have perfidiously broken.” Lifting up the hand was the usual ceremony at the taking of an oath. See Gen 14:22. So that this verse seems to contain a repetition of the same sense; agreeable to which the Chaldee interprets the former part of the verse to mean a false oath; and the Arabic renders the latter part thus, and their oath it an oath of iniquity. May not this ancient solemnity of lifting up the hand have given rise to the custom practised at this day in our courts of justice, where the party accused holds up his hand when he declares himself guilty or not guilty of the facts laid to his charge?

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Psa 144:8 Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand [is] a right hand of falsehood.

Ver. 8. Whose mouth speaketh vanity ] They keep touch no further than will serve their own turns.

And their right hand ] No, though they give their hands upon it that they will keep promise.

Multis annis iam transactis,

Nulla fides est in pactis.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)