What Does Psalm 52:2 Mean in the King James?
Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
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
Speech here does not merely cut; it plans, then wears deceit like a polished edge.
THE MEANING
Your words can carry a plan for harm, not just a moment’s heat. The verse pictures deceit as a sharpened blade: the injury is shaped and concealed before it reaches another person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that controlled or clever words are harmless; careful speech can make a wound more precise.
THE ROOT
תַּחְשֹׁב
taḥshov
GROWS FROM
חשב
To think, reckon, plan, or devise.
“deviseth” in this verse is taḥshov. The verb belongs to a root that also carries the sense of reckoning and forming a plan. The tongue is pictured as shaping destructive intent into speech, not simply letting words slip out.
ALSO GROWS
maḥashavah: Thought, intention, or plan.
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This branch shows the planning sense behind “deviseth”: the harm has taken shape in thought.
ḥeshbon: An account or reckoning.
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
The same root can describe calculation, giving the verse’s devising a measured, deliberate edge.
רְמִיָּה
remiyyah
GROWS FROM
רמה
To deceive or deal treacherously.
“deceitfully” in this verse is remiyyah. The verse joins a sharpened blade to deceit: the danger lies both in the harm and in the hidden intent behind it. The word describes treachery, not merely an inaccurate statement.
ALSO GROWS
mirmah: Deception or guile.
מִרְמָה
This noun from the same root names the concealed deceit that makes the blade’s edge harder to see.
ramah: He deceived or acted treacherously.
רָמָה
The verb makes explicit the action that the verse describes as being worked through the tongue.
מְלֻטָּשׁ
meluttash
GROWS FROM
לטש
To sharpen, polish, or forge to an edge.
The razor is not merely sharp; its edge has been worked. The root adds the image of harm made more effective through shaping.
ALSO GROWS
lōṭēsh: One who sharpens or works metal.
לֹטֵשׁ
This form names the worker who shapes an edge, echoing the verse’s image of deliberate preparation.
liltōsh: To sharpen.
לִלְטוֹשׁ
This verbal form makes the razor’s edge an action: something is worked until it can cut.
THE PATTERN
Speech can become a sharpened instrument that carries injury from intent into the world.
There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.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.Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:THE THREAD
Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war.Psalm 140:2 uses the same root, חשב (ḥashav, to think or plan), for what is imagined in the heart. Here that same devising is assigned to the tongue, revealing how the verse links destructive intent with speech.
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