What Does Psalm 120:4 Mean in the King James?

Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.

Psalm 120:4 · 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 false tongue faces a force that pierces like arrows and burns like coals.

THE MEANING

The false tongue is answered with sharpened arrows and burning coals. Deceit is not weightless here; the verse gives it a consequence that pierces and keeps burning.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a lie is harmless because it is only words: the false tongue is met with the image of piercing and fire.

THE ROOT

שְׁנוּנִים

shenunim

GROWS FROM

שׁנן

shanan

To sharpen or whet.

“Sharp” in this verse is shenunim. The word for the arrows’ sharpness grows from the same root as a verb used for teaching diligently. The root joins words honed into weapons with words sharpened through instruction: speech can wound or form.

ALSO GROWS

shanan: To sharpen or whet.

שָׁנַן

This is the root’s basic action, giving the arrows their cutting edge.

veshinnantam: You shall teach them diligently.

וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם

In Deuteronomy 6:7, the related verb brings sharpening into the work of teaching words.

THE PATTERN

Deceptive speech is pictured as a weapon that pierces and burns.

Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:

Psalm 64:3 · KJVThe tongue is sharpened like a weapon, and its words fly as arrows.

Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.

Jeremiah 9:8 · KJVDeceitful speech travels like an arrow, concealing its danger beneath peaceful words.

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 is described as fire that spreads beyond the words themselves.

THE THREAD

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Deuteronomy 6:7 · KJV

The root behind these sharpened arrows also appears in “teach them diligently.” In this psalm, sharpened speech wounds; in Deuteronomy, it carries instruction.

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