What Does Psalm 140:11 Mean?
Let not a man of tongue be set firm in the land. Harm hunts the man of violence, to shove him down.
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
Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.THE KEY
The slandering tongue finds no fixed place, while evil becomes the hunter that brings the violent person down.
THE MEANING
The prayer names a destructive tongue as a person’s defining mark and asks that it gain no secure footing in the shared land. Evil pursues the violent person until that person is overthrown; the harm does not remain under its wielder’s control.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that malicious speech can establish a lasting foothold and violence can remain a safe tool in its user’s hands.
THE ROOT
יִכּוֹן
yikkon
GROWS FROM
כ־ו־ן
kun
Be firm, set in place, or make ready.
“set firm” in this verse is yikkon. The root כון (kun, be firm or prepare) holds both settled footing and readiness. The prayer asks that the slandering tongue not be given a firm place in the land, a contrast sharpened by the proverb where truthful speech is established to endure.
ALSO GROWS
hekhīn: Prepare, make ready.
הֵכִין
Preparation is the act of setting something in place, carrying the same root idea as establishment.
nakhon: Firm, established, ready.
נָכוֹן
This form shows the settled condition the prayer denies to the destructive speaker.
אִישׁ לָשׁוֹן
ʾish lashon
GROWS FROM
ל־שׁ־ן
lashan
Use the tongue; speak against another, slander.
The Hebrew phrase is literally “man of tongue,” naming the person by the instrument of speech. The related verb for slandering brings out how speech itself can become a form of harm.
ALSO GROWS
lashon: Tongue; language.
לָשׁוֹן
The word makes the speaker’s tongue central to how the person is described.
lashan: Slander, speak maliciously against someone.
לָשַׁן
This related verb shows the tongue turning from speech into an attack.
יְצוּדֶנּוּ
yetsudennu
GROWS FROM
צ־ו־ד
tsud
Hunt, pursue as prey.
“hunt” in this verse is yetsudennu. The root makes the consequence an active pursuit: the violent person becomes the quarry. Its branches name both hunter and game, turning the image of force back upon the one who uses it.
ALSO GROWS
tsayyad: Hunter.
צַיָּד
The related noun gives the pursuing force a clear agent.
tsayid: Game, quarry, or food from hunting.
צַיִד
This branch gives the violent person’s new position in the sentence: the one pursued as prey.
THE PATTERN
Destructive speech and violence cannot secure lasting ground; the harm sent out returns as a force that overtakes its source.
The lip of truth stands firm for the ages, but a lying tongue lasts only for a blink.His toil turns back upon his head, and his violence comes down upon his skull.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
The lip of truth stands firm for the ages, but a lying tongue lasts only for a blink.Proverbs uses the same root כון (kun, be established) for truth’s enduring place, and repeats לָשׁוֹן (lashon, tongue) for false speech. The shared words sharpen Psalm 140:11: the destructive tongue has no permanence, while truthful speech endures.
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