Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 52:2
Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
2. Thy tongue deviseth ] Cp. Psa 35:20. Sins of the tongue falsehood, slander, false witness, and the like are frequently denounced in the Psalms and by the Prophets. See Psa 5:9; Psa 10:7; Psa 12:2 ff; Mic 6:12; Jer 9:3; &c.
mischiefs ] R.V., very wickedness (as in Psa 5:9); or destruction, perhaps not without a reminiscence of the original meaning of the word, a yawning gulf, for his tongue is ready to swallow up ( Psa 52:4) the righteous. The plur. denotes mischief or destructiveness of every kind.
like a sharp rasor ] Lit., like a whetted rasor, which cuts you before you are aware, as you handle it incautiously. The tongue and its words are elsewhere compared to swords and spears and arrows (Psa 55:21, Psa 57:4, Psa 59:7, Psa 64:3; cp. Pro 26:18). Comp. Shakespeare, Cymbeline, iii.4,
“’Tis slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword.”
working deceitfully ] The partic. cannot, unless we assume a laxity of construction, be in agreement with thy tongue; nor can it well be referred to the sharp rasor. It is best to take it as a vocative, O thou worker of deceit. Cp. Psa 101:7.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs – The word rendered mischiefs means
(a) desire, cupidity: Pro 10:3; then
(b) fall, ruin, destruction, wickedness: Psa 5:9; Psa 38:12.
The meaning here is, that he made use of his tongue to ruin others. Compare Psa 50:19. The particular thing referred to here is the fact that Doeg sought the ruin of others by giving information in regard to them. He informed Saul of what Ahimelech had done; he informed him where David had been, thus giving him, also, information in what way he might be found and apprehended. All this was designed to bring ruin upon David and his followers. It actually brought ruin on Ahimelech and those associated with him, 1Sa 22:17-19.
Like a sharp razor – See the notes at Isa 7:20. His slanders were like a sharp knife with which one stabs another. So we stay of a slanderer that he stabs another in the dark.
Working deceitfully – literally, making deceit. That is, it was by deceit that he accomplished his purpose. There was no open and fair dealing in what he did.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 52:2-4
Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
Sins of speech
The prominence given to sins of speech is peculiar. We should have expected high-handed violence rather than these. But the psalmist is tracking the deeds to their source; and it is not so much the tyrants words as his love of a certain kind of words which is adduced as proof of his wickedness. These words have two characteristics in addition to boastfulness. They are false and destructive. They are, according to the forcible literal meaning in Psa 52:4, words of swallowing. They are, according to the literal meaning of destructions in Psa 52:2, yawning gulfs. Such words lead to acts which make a tyrant. They flow from perverted preference of evil to good. Thus the deeds of oppression are followed up to their den and birthplace. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. Deviseth mischiefs] Lies and slanders proceeding from the tongue argue the desperate wickedness of the heart.
Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.] Which instead of taking off the beard, cuts and wounds the flesh; or as the operator who, when pretending to trim the beard, cuts the throat.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Deviseth i.e. expresseth what thy wicked mind had devised. Thus skilfulness is ascribed to those hands which are governed by a skilful or prudent man, Psa 78:72. This word implies that Doegs words were not uttered rashly and unadvisedly, but with premeditated malice, and a mischievous design, which he waited for an opportunity to execute; and therefore he readily took the first occasion which offered itself.
Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully; wherewith a man pretending only to shave off the hair, doth suddenly and unexpectedly cut the throat. So Doeg pretended only to vindicate himself from the imputation of disloyalty, 1Sa 22:8, but really intended to expose the priests, who were friends to David, to the kings fury and cruelty.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. tonguefor self.
mischiefsevil toothers (Psa 5:9; Psa 38:12).
working deceitfully(Ps 10:7), as a keen, smoothlymoving razor, cutting quietly, but deeply.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs,…. Abundance of mischiefs, in a variety of ways, against many persons, even all good men. What properly belongs to the heart is here ascribed to the tongue; because, as Aben Ezra observes, it is the interpreter and discoverer of the thoughts of the heart: out of the abundance of that the tongue speaks and declares the mischief it has devised. Doeg intended mischief to David, when he spoke to Saul, 1Sa 22:9; so antichrist devises mischiefs against the saints of the most High, to wear them out, and thinks to change times and laws, Da 7:25;
like a sharp razor, working deceitfully; that is, his tongue was like a razor; the razor is but a small instrument, and the tongue is but a little member: the razor is a sharp and cutting one, and so is the tongue; and therefore compared to a sharp sword, Ps 57:4; see
Jer 18:18; the razor takes off the beard cleanly and wholly; Doeg’s tongue was the cause of the utter ruin of Ahimelech’s family and the city of Nob; and as a razor may be said to “work deceitfully”, when it turns aside in the hand of him that useth it, and with the hair takes off more than it should, even skin and flesh, or cuts the man’s throat; so in a deceitful and insidious manner did Doeg work the destruction of Ahimelech and the priests of the Lord.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
2. Thy tongue reckons up mischiefs David is not to be considered as here venting a flood of reproaches against his adversary, as many who have been unjustly injured are in the habit of doing, merely to gratify a feeling of revenge. He brings these charges against him in the sight of God, with a view to encourage himself in the hopefulness of his own cause: for it is plain that the farther our enemies proceed in the practice of iniquity, they proportionally provoke the anger of the Lord, and are nearer to that destruction which must issue in our deliverance. His object, therefore, is not to blacken the character of Doeg in the estimation of the world, but rather to set before his own eyes the divine punishment which the flagrant offenses he specifies were certain to draw down upon his head. Amongst these he singles out, as more especially worthy of reprobation, the hidden treachery with which he had been chargeable in accomplishing the destruction of the priesthood. Adverting to his secret and malicious information, he likens his tongue to a sharp razor, as elsewhere, Psa 120:4, the tongues of the wicked are compared to “sharp arrows.” It is added, working deceitfully, which words are considered by some as referring to the razor which cuts subtilely, and not with an open wound like a sword; but perhaps they may be construed with more propriety as applying to the tongue, (276) although there can be no doubt of the reason of the comparison.
(276) According to the first sense, the meaning is, that as a razor cuts so easily, that the wound is at first hardly perceptible, in the same manner, the deceitful tongue works its purposes of mischief before the objects which it means to ruin are conscious of their danger. It is like a sharp razor, that cuts the throat before a man is aware of it. “If, however, we take the words, thou workest deceitfully, as being descriptive not of the razor but of the tongue, the sense will be, that such a tongue is capable of inflicting deep and dreadful wounds like a sharp razor.” — Walford.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) Working deceitfully.Better, working guile. (For the metaphor, see Psa. 55:21; Psa. 57:4, &c)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 52:2. Thy tongue deviseth mischief I do not very well understand, says Dr. Chandler, the propriety of the tongue’s devising mischief, and devising it like a sharp razor; but we may easily avoid this harsh comparison, which Mr. Le Clerc justly complains of, by rendering the words, Thou contrivest mischiefs with thy tongue, as with a sharp razor, O thou dealer in deceit! i.e. “Thou contrivest, with thy smooth and flattering tongue, to wound the reputation and character of others; as though thou wert cutting their throats with a smooth or sharp razor.” Or, much to the same sense, Thou contrivest wickedness: thy tongue is like a sharp razor: thou dealest in deceit; or, O thou deceitful doer! The construction will bear either of these senses: the comparing a smooth, deceitful, murderous tongue to a sharp razor, is natural and lively. Chandler.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
We shall not lose an atom of this subject, considered as to the persecutions of good men, by the evil in general, nor the sure judgment which sooner or later must follow; we shall not lose sight of the moral and religious improvements arising out of the subject, if, while we consider it in this point of view, we look at it also in a higher and more spiritual sense. Doeg was an Edomite, a descendant of Esau; and in all ages and generations the true Israel of God are exposed to the hatred and malice of all the race of Esau. Was there not the same persecution against Christ at his birth, as Saul manifested towards David? And did not Herod send forth and destroy the Jewish children at Bethlehem, wholly with a view to include the new-born Saviour in the number, as this Doeg designed to weaken David’s cause, by the slaughter of his friends the priests? Reader, it is the cause of Jesus against which Satan vents all his malice, and for the destruction of which he stirs up the adversaries of the cross in all ages. Mat 2:16 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 52:2 Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
Ver. 2. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs ] i.e. Venteth the mischievous devices of thy mind, being an interpreter and an instrument fit for such a purpose, Cogitat, id est eructat. Such another Doeg was Nicholas Saunders, priest, the firebrand of Earl Desmond’s rebellion in Ireland, A. D. 1580, a restless and wretched man, whose foul mouth was at length stopped with famine that had been ever open to stir up rebellions against the state; that had uttered so many blasphemies against God and his holy truth, and invented so many loud and lewd lies against men.
Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
mischiefs = malignity. Plural for singular = a great malignity.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Thy: Psa 50:19, Psa 64:2-6, Psa 140:2, Psa 140:3, Pro 6:16-19, Pro 30:14, Jer 9:3, Jer 9:4, Jer 18:18, Mat 26:59, Act 6:11-13, Act 24:1, Act 24:5, Rev 12:10
like: Psa 57:4, Psa 59:7, Pro 12:18, Pro 18:21
working: Psa 109:2, Psa 120:2, 2Co 4:2, 2Co 11:13
Reciprocal: 2Sa 11:14 – wrote a letter Ezr 4:13 – if this city Neh 6:8 – thou feignest Job 15:5 – thou choosest Psa 5:9 – For Psa 25:19 – cruel hatred Psa 26:10 – In Psa 35:20 – but Pro 6:12 – walketh Pro 14:3 – the mouth Pro 15:4 – a breach Pro 16:27 – in Pro 18:8 – words Pro 21:10 – soul Pro 25:18 – General Pro 29:12 – General Ecc 10:11 – a babbler Jer 37:14 – said Jer 41:4 – after Eze 11:2 – General Dan 11:23 – work Hos 7:16 – the rage Mat 12:34 – how Mat 15:11 – but Luk 6:45 – and an Act 23:14 – General Rom 3:13 – with their Eph 4:29 – no 1Ti 3:8 – doubletongued Jam 3:5 – so
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 52:2. Thy tongue deviseth mischief That is, expresses what thy wicked mind had devised. Thus skilfulness is ascribed to those hands which are governed by a skilful man, Psa 78:72. Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully Wherewith a person, pretending only to shave off the hair, doth suddenly and unexpectedly cut a mans throat. So Doeg, pretending only to vindicate himself from the imputation of disloyalty, 1Sa 22:8, really intended to expose the priests, who were friends to David, to the kings fury and cruelty.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
52:2 Thy tongue deviseth {b} mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
(b) Your malice moves you by crafty flattery and lies to accuse and destroy the innocents.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The wicked who oppose God’s faithful servants often use their words as weapons to cut them down (cf. Jas 3:6; Jas 3:8). Their words are deceitful when they misrepresent the truth. They are "artists of deceit." [Note: Dahood, 2:11.] David stressed the fact that the treacherous really love their destructive activity. To destroy is bad enough, but to love to do it is worse.