What Does Psalm 36:3 Mean?
The words of his mouth are emptiness and deceit; he has stopped being wise and stopped doing good.
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
The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.THE KEY
Deceitful speech is the audible sign that discernment and doing good have already been abandoned.
THE MEANING
The verse gives you a way to recognize a present pattern: speech shaped by harm and deception accompanies the abandonment of discernment and good action. It treats deceit as more than a passing verbal lapse; the mouth exposes that wisdom has been laid aside. The words make visible how speech and the capacity to do good are connected.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that deceptive speech is merely a verbal slip with no connection to judgment or conduct; here, deceitful words belong to the abandonment of wisdom and doing good.
THE ROOT
מִרְמָה
mirmāh
GROWS FROM
רמה
r-m-h
to deceive, beguile, or deal treacherously
The word for deceit names deception as active dealing, not simply inaccurate speech. The verse places this treacherous speech beside a life that has stopped discerning and doing good.
ALSO GROWS
rāmāh: to deceive or beguile
רָמָה
The verb shows that deceit is something enacted, giving the mouth’s words the force of an action.
remiyyāh: deceit or treachery
רְמִיָּה
This related noun appears in Psalm 52:2 for speech that works deceitfully, echoing the verse’s picture of deception carried by the tongue.
לְהַשְׂכִּיל
lehaskil
GROWS FROM
שכל
ś-k-l
to understand, discern, or act with prudence
“to be wise” in this verse is lehaskil. This verb joins insight to wise action; it does not describe knowledge held at a distance. The verse links deceitful speech to the abandonment of the capacity to discern and act well.
ALSO GROWS
śēkhel: understanding or insight
שֵׂכֶל
This noun shows the discernment contained in wisdom, which the verse says has been left behind.
maśkīl: one who understands or acts with insight
מַשְׂכִּיל
This form describes wisdom embodied in a person, sharpening the verse’s contrast between deceitful speech and a life shaped by discernment.
THE PATTERN
Deceptive speech signals a deeper departure from the wisdom that shapes good action.
Your tongue plans ruin, like a sharp razor, goading deceit.There is one who blurts like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise is healing.Who among you is wise and knowing? Let him show his works from a good walk, in the tamed gentleness of wisdom.THE THREAD
The one who handles a matter with insight finds good, and whoever leans his full weight upon the LORD, flourishing is he.“Wisely” comes from the same שׂכל (ś-k-l), meaning to understand or act with prudence, root as “to be wise” in this verse, and Proverbs ends with finding good. Together, the verses show the good wisdom reaches and the collapse that follows when it is abandoned.
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