What Does Psalm 5:9 Mean?
There is no firmness in their mouth; their insides are ruin; their throat is an open grave; they smooth with their tongue.
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
For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.THE KEY
The tongue’s smoothness is how the grave within speaks.
THE MEANING
This verse names a living pattern: speech without steadiness can carry ruin from within. A smooth tongue can make that ruin sound safe even while the throat remains an open grave.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that agreeable speech proves a trustworthy interior; smooth words can conceal destruction.
THE ROOT
יַחֲלִיקוּן
yachaliqun
GROWS FROM
חלק
ḥ-l-q
To be smooth; to make smooth.
The word rendered “flatter” carries the sense of smoothing. The verse sets that polished surface against the open grave: smooth speech can disguise what it carries.
ALSO GROWS
smooth things: Pleasing or polished speech.
Isaiah 30:10 uses a form of חלק for “smooth things,” showing the same root behind speech made easy to hear.
flattering lips: Lips that smooth over what is true.
Psalm 12:2 uses the same root for “flattering lips,” linking this verse’s tongue to speech that sounds pleasant while concealing its intent.
הַוּוֹת
havvot
GROWS FROM
הוה
h-w-h
Ruin, calamity, destructive mischief.
The Hebrew puts havvot, ruins or destructive mischiefs, inside them. What comes from the tongue is connected to an interior already described as ruin.
ALSO GROWS
havvah: Ruin or calamity in the singular.
The singular form makes the root’s concrete sense visible: the inward part is characterized by damage, not merely by a vague fault.
mischiefs: Destructive schemes or harms.
Psalm 52:2 uses the same plural word for “mischiefs” devised by the tongue, joining inner ruin with harmful speech.
נְכוֹנָה
nekhonah
GROWS FROM
כון
kun
To establish, set firm, or make ready.
What is absent from their mouth is firmness: there is no settled, reliable footing in what they say. The root also describes what is established, making the contrast between steady speech and smooth speech especially sharp.
ALSO GROWS
stablished: Made firm or set in place.
Psalm 93:1 says the world is “stablished”; the same root names the firmness missing from this mouth.
fixed: Firmly set or established.
Psalm 57:7 repeats “My heart is fixed,” using the same root for steadiness that this verse says their speech lacks.
THE PATTERN
Polished speech can carry destructive intent from within into the open.
They speak emptiness, each one with his neighbor; with smooth lips, with two hearts, they speak.Their tongue is a slaughtering arrow, and it speaks deceit. One speaks wholeness to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he sets his ambush.Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have worked deceit. The venom of asps lies under their lips.THE THREAD
A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a smooth mouth makes a stumbling.The word rendered “flattering” comes from חלק (ḥ-l-q), the root of smoothness, as it does in Psalm 5:9. Proverbs names the result of that smooth surface: the flattering mouth works ruin.
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