What Does Psalm 57:4 Mean in the King James?
My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
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
Human hostility burns like fire, then reaches the living soul through teeth that pierce and a tongue that cuts.
THE MEANING
Your living soul can feel surrounded by predators. The verse gives that threat a human face: teeth pierce like spears and arrows, while the tongue cuts like a sword. The flame makes the hostility feel consuming, not merely sharp.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that verbal harm is unreal because it leaves no visible wound: here the tongue carries the force of a sword.
THE ROOT
לֹהֲטִים
lohatim
GROWS FROM
להט
l-h-ṭ
to blaze or flame
“set on fire” in this verse is lohatim. The people surrounding the living soul are described as flaming. The same fire-word appears beside a sword in Genesis 3:24, drawing the verse’s heat and weapon imagery together.
ALSO GROWS
lohatim: flaming ones
לֹהֲטִים
This is the word describing the dangerous people around the speaker.
lahat: flame; flaming
לַהַט
In Genesis 3:24, this word describes the flaming sword, linking fire with the verse’s blade imagery.
לְשׁוֹנָם
leshonam
GROWS FROM
לשן
l-sh-n
tongue; the same word also names language
“their tongue” in this verse is leshonam. Hebrew uses lashon for both the physical tongue and language. The verse makes that overlap tangible: the mouth has teeth like projectiles, and its tongue is figured as a blade.
ALSO GROWS
lashon: tongue, the body part
לָשׁוֹן
The physical tongue is placed beside teeth and compared to a sword.
lashon: language or speech
לָשׁוֹן
The same word holds speech and the bodily organ together, so the image of speech as a weapon stays close to the mouth.
נַפְשִׁי
nafshi
GROWS FROM
נפשׁ
n-p-sh
the living self; the word-family also carries the sense of being refreshed
“my soul” in this verse is nafshi. The KJV’s “soul” is nefesh, the living soul exposed to danger. The same root forms a verb meaning “be refreshed,” holding vulnerability and restoration within one word-family.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: living soul; living being
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the living self caught among the lions and human threats.
veyinnafesh: may be refreshed (Exodus 23:12)
וְיִנָּפֵשׁ
The same root can describe the living self receiving respite and renewal.
THE PATTERN
Human hostility can turn speech into an instrument of bodily violence.
They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.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.THE THREAD
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.The people “set on fire” are described with lahat, the same fire-word used for the flaming sword at Eden’s boundary. Psalm 57 brings that fire-and-sword image close: the flame and blade are carried by human teeth and tongue.
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