What Does Psalm 120:2 Mean?
Snatch my living soul, O LORD, from lying lips and from a tongue that shoots.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.THE KEY
The plea treats lying speech as a threat to the whole living self, something the person needs to be pulled free from.
THE MEANING
You are asking the LORD to pull your living self free from speech meant to deceive. The verse names that deception as a real danger to the person, and holds open the possibility of rescue.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that deceptive words are harmless dissolves here: the verse names them as a danger to the living self and asks for rescue from them.
THE ROOT
הַצִּילָה
hatzilah
GROWS FROM
נצל
To snatch away or rescue from a grasp.
“Snatch” in this verse is hatzilah. The verb carries the sense of being pulled out of danger. The plea is for the living self to be freed from false speech, not merely for the words to be corrected.
ALSO GROWS
hitzil: He rescued or delivered.
הִצִּיל
This form shows the same root naming rescue as an act of pulling someone out of danger.
natsal: To snatch away or rescue.
נָצַל
The root’s basic image makes the plea for deliverance concrete: the person is taken out of the reach of what threatens them.
נַפְשִׁי
nafshi
GROWS FROM
נפש
The living self or person.
“living soul” in this verse is nafshi. Nefesh names the living person, not merely an abstract inner part. The rescue concerns the whole self exposed to deceitful speech.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul, self, or person.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the word in the verse: the plea concerns the living person who hears the lie.
naphash: To rest or be refreshed.
נָפַשׁ
This verb from the same consonants shows the root’s connection with the condition of a living self that can be restored.
שֶׁקֶר
sheqer
GROWS FROM
שקר
Falsehood or dealing falsely.
The word can name both a false thing and the act of dealing falsely. Lying speech is presented as something done to another person, not just inaccurate language.
ALSO GROWS
sheqer: Falsehood or a lie.
שֶׁקֶר
This noun names the falsehood the plea seeks deliverance from.
shaqar: To lie or deal falsely.
שָׁקַר
The verb brings out the active deception contained in the image of lying lips.
THE PATTERN
Deceptive speech can reach beyond a sentence and threaten the well-being of the person who hears it.
Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.There is one who blurts like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise is healing.And the tongue is fire, a world of crookedness. It is set among our limbs, staining the whole body and setting the wheel of becoming ablaze, and it is lit by Gehenna.THE THREAD
I seek the LORD, and he answers me, and snatches me out of every place of dread.Both verses use נצל (natsal), meaning to snatch away or rescue. Here the rescue is from lying speech; in Psalm 34:4, it is from fear, the same root names the living self being pulled free from different forms of distress.
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