What Does Psalm 120:3 Mean in the King James?

What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?

Psalm 120:3 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The deceitful tongue is asked what can answer it, and the next verse answers with wounds that pierce and heat that stays.

THE MEANING

The question brings the deceitful tongue face to face with what its speech sets in motion. Deception pierces and leaves a burn that does not vanish with the spoken word. The verse speaks now wherever false speech is treated as harmless.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that deceptive words disappear once spoken: their harm can remain sharp and burning.

THE ROOT

לָשׁוֹן רְמִיָּה

lashon remiyyah

GROWS FROM

רמה

r-m-h

To deceive or deal treacherously.

“false tongue” in this verse is lashon remiyyah. The word for “false” carries the sense of treachery, not merely a statement that is inaccurate. The root makes the tongue’s danger relational: speech becomes a betrayal, which the next verse renders as piercing arrows and enduring coals.

ALSO GROWS

ramah: To deceive or deal treacherously.

רָמָה

The verb shows that the tongue’s falseness is an act of betrayal, not just an error of fact.

mirmah: Deceit or guile.

מִרְמָה

This related noun names the treachery carried by the speech and clarifies why the verse asks what consequence can answer it.

THE PATTERN

Deceptive speech carries the force of a weapon or fire: it pierces, spreads, and leaves lasting harm.

Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.

Psalm 120:4 · KJVThe image answers the question about the deceitful tongue with wounds that pierce and heat that lasts.

There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.

Proverbs 12:18 · KJVSpeech can cut like a weapon, while wise speech brings healing.

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

James 3:6 · KJVThe tongue’s harm spreads like fire, extending beyond the first words spoken.

THE THREAD

Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.

Psalm 120:4 · KJV

The next verse answers the question in Psalm 120:3 by turning consequence into two images: arrows that pierce and coals that keep burning. The sequence makes the deceitful tongue’s harm tangible and lasting.

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