Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 52:4
Thou lovest all devouring words, O [thou] deceitful tongue.
4. devouring words ] Lit., words of swallowing up. Cp. the use of the verb in Psa 35:25, “We have swallowed him up”: and Psa 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. Psa 120:2-3; Psa 12:3; 1Ki 19:18.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 – bela – occurs only here and in Jer 51:44, though the verb from which it is derived occurs frequently: Isa 28:4; Exo 7:12; Jon 2:1 Jon 1:17; Gen 41:7, Gen 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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Devouring words, such as might swallow up and destroy a whole family at once.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. all-devouringliterally,”swallowing,” which utterly destroy (compare Psa 21:9;Psa 35:25).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole 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 Re 13:5;
O [thou] deceitful tongue; [See comments on Ps 52:2].
y “verba absorptionis”, Vatablus, Gejerus, Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The term בלע , balang, in verse fourth, which has been translated destruction, I prefer understanding in the sense of hiding or concealment. He seems to allude to the drawing back of the tongue when we swallow; and under this figure, to describe the deceitfulness of Doeg’s words, by which he devoured the unsuspecting and the innocent. (277) The great design of David, as I have already remarked in the preceding verses, is to encourage himself in the hope of deliverance by dwelling upon the extreme character of that wickedness which his enemy had displayed.
(277) “ בלע, balang, is to swallow, to devour, with the idea of eagerness, greediness.” — Gesenius
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) Devouring words.Literally, words of swallowing, such as swallow down (comp. Psa. 5:9, where the throat is called an open sepulchre) a neighbours life, honour, and goods.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. All devouring words Literally, all words that gulp down. Words which swallow a man, as a voracious animal gulps his food without mastication. All such words of falsehood this “hero” in crime and perfidy loved, and none others. It is evident that Doeg was a man of marked ability, and of artful, insinuating address.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
A Description Of The Consequences To Himself Resulting From His Sinfulness ( Psa 52:4-5 ).
The Psalmist now tells us that what a man sows he will reap. In the final analysis God will do to men what they have done to others. Thus those who devour with their words will themselves be devoured.
Psa 52:4-5
‘You love all devouring words,
O you deceitful tongue.’
In the same way God will destroy you for ever,
He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent,
And root you out of the land of the living.’ [Selah
‘Devouring words’ are literally ‘words which swallow up’. They cause harm, and even death. The deceiver loves such words, for they enable him to obtain his ends, at whatever cost to those whom he denigrates. Doeg’s words certainly ‘swallowed up’ Ahimelech and the priests of Nob. And they were certainly ‘plucked from their tents (homes) and rooted out of the land of the living’. Thus the application to Doeg as a recompense for what he had done is very apposite.
And the warning to all who love devouring words which ‘swallow people up’, is that they also will be ‘taken up’ by God, will be ‘plucked from their tents’, and will be ‘rooted out of the land of the living’. What they have done to others will be done to them. God will destroy them for ever.
The verbs are forceful, almost violent. ‘Plucked from their tents’. Compare how in Deuteronomy Israel were warned that if they did not observe YHWH’s Instruction (His Torah – Law) they too would be plucked out of the land which YHWH had given them (Deuteronomy 26:63). ‘Tents’ was a synonym for their homes, commonly found throughout the Old Testament. ‘Rooted out of the land of the living’ may have in mind weeds which, in order to be destroyed, were torn up by their roots. This was precisely what had happened to the priests at Nob.
‘O you deceitful tongue.’ In other words, ‘you man with a deceitful tongue’. The man is spoken of in terms of his tongue.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 52:4. Thou lovest all devouring words Hebrew. All the words of devouring, or destruction; O thou deceitful tongue! Or, repeating the word from the foregoing clause, Thou lovest the tongue of deceit; i.e. the deceitful tongue; or such calumnies as are the most pernicious in their nature, and as may most effectually involve others in utter destruction. Houbigant follows the last version.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 52:4 Thou lovest all devouring words, O [thou] deceitful tongue.
Ver. 4. Thou lovest all devouring words ] Verba devoratoria ; the Greek hath it, , that devour and swallow up, so as the sea doth things cast into it. So elsewhere, their throat is an open sepulchre, which devoureth all bodies, but rendereth none without a miracle. Some render it, Verba voraginis, the words of a whirlpool, which first turns men around, and then sucks them in. Others, Verba absorptionis, in reference to that use of the tongue, which is to sup up dish meats; Sic lingua attrahit homines ita ut absorbeantur, saith Vatablus. The Vulgate hath it, Verba praecipitationis, words that hurl one down headlong, Ex editis aedium vel rupium, as Hilary hath it, from the top of houses, or high rocks.
O thou deceitful tongue
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
devouring words. Hebrew words of swallowing up. Compare 1Sa 22:18.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
devouring: 1Sa 22:18, 1Sa 22:19, Jam 3:6-9
O thou: or, and the
Reciprocal: Exo 10:11 – for that Psa 10:7 – and deceit Psa 73:9 – tongue Psa 109:17 – General 2Th 2:12 – but
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 52:4-5. Thou lovest all devouring words Hebrew, , 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 , 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 Lords tabernacle, from which thou didst cut off the Lords 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.