What Does Psalm 64:3 Mean in the King James?
Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
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 tongue is not merely speaking here; it is honed like a blade and aimed like an arrow.
THE MEANING
This verse describes speech shaped into a weapon: the tongue is honed, the words are aimed, and bitterness is what they carry. It names verbal harm as something with an edge and a target, even when the wound cannot be seen.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that speech leaves no wound collapses here: the tongue is sharpened, the arrow aimed, and bitterness carried into the hearer.
THE ROOT
שננו
shinnenu
GROWS FROM
שׁנן
shanan
To sharpen or hone; the same root also carries the sense of sharpening through repetition.
“whet” in this verse is shinnenu. The tongue is described as deliberately sharpened, not merely active. The same root can describe diligent teaching, so its image holds both a blade honed for harm and words pressed firmly into memory.
ALSO GROWS
shanan: Sharpen, whet.
שָׁנָן
This is the sharpening action behind the verse’s image of a tongue honed like a sword.
veshinnantam: Teach them diligently; literally, sharpen or impress them.
וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם
In Deuteronomy 6:7, the same root describes instruction sharpened through repetition, revealing how words can be honed into either a wound or lasting teaching.
מַר
mar
GROWS FROM
מרר
marar
To be bitter or to make bitter.
“bitter” in this verse is mar. Mar names bitterness as something tasted and endured, not just a judgment about someone’s tone. Here that quality travels in speech, giving the words the force of an experienced bitterness.
ALSO GROWS
merorim: Bitter herbs.
מְרֹרִים
The same root names bitterness as a taste, giving “bitter words” a tangible, sensory quality.
hemar: Made bitter; dealt bitterly.
הֵמַר
In Ruth 1:20, the root describes lived anguish, showing how bitterness can name an experience as well as a taste.
THE PATTERN
Scripture portrays destructive speech as a force that pierces, burns, and reaches the hearer with real effect.
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.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.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
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.The Hebrew verb translated “teach them diligently” comes from the same שׁנן (shanan), meaning “sharpen,” as “whet” in Psalm 64:3. The shared root shows words being honed through repetition: here they cut like a weapon; there they are pressed into memory as instruction.
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