What Does Psalm 31:18 Mean?
Let the lying lips be silenced, the lips that speak hard things with a lifted head and scorn against the aligned.
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 the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.THE KEY
Proud contempt cannot turn falsehood into truth; its proper end is silence.
THE MEANING
When contemptuous words are aimed at what is right, their force does not make the accusation true. The verse sees the lie beneath the pride and names silence as its end.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an accusation becomes true when spoken with enough confidence or contempt, or that being targeted by slander proves the target is unrighteous.
THE ROOT
שָׁקֶר
shaqer
GROWS FROM
שקר
שקר (sh-q-r): falsehood; to lie or deal falsely.
The word translated “lying” belongs to the שקר (sh-q-r) family of falsehood and false dealing. The verse exposes how contempt tries to dress falsehood in authority, while the root shows that the speech remains deception beneath its proud sound.
ALSO GROWS
shaqar: To lie or deal falsely.
שָׁקַר
This verb shows that the lips are doing more than making an error: they are dealing falsely against the righteous.
sheqarim: Lies or falsehoods.
שְׁקָרִים
The plural form makes clear that falsehood can take many words, while the verse gathers them under one root and names their end as silence.
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
צדק (ts-d-q): be right, act justly; alignment.
The word rendered “righteous” belongs to a family concerned with what is right and with alignment. That makes the attack directional: false speech tries to discredit the one aligned with what is right, while the verse exposes the false footing of the attack itself.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Justice, rightness.
צֶדֶק
This branch links the righteous person with what is right, clarifying what the lying lips are speaking against.
tsedaqah: Righteousness or justice.
צְדָקָה
This related form shows that the word family reaches beyond a label for a person to the condition and practice of what is right.
THE PATTERN
Proud false speech can rise against what is right, but it does not hold the final word.
The LORD cuts away all smooth lips, and the tongue that speaks great things.No weapon shaped against you will push through, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you will condemn. This is the portion of the servants of the LORD, and their alignment is from me, declares the LORD.Who, when he was insulted, hurled no insult back; when he suffered, he threatened not; but handed himself over to the one who judges by alignment.THE THREAD
Remove far from me emptiness and the way of lying. Give me neither need nor plenty. Feed me the bread measured out for me.The Hebrew word שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, falsehood) belongs to the same root as “lying” in Psalm 31:18. Proverbs asks for falsehood to be removed from the speaker’s own mouth; the psalm asks for falsehood aimed at the righteous to be silenced.
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