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Psalm 120:3

What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue?

1A Song of Ascents. In my distress, I cried to the LORD. He answered me.
2Deliver my soul, LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.
3What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue?
4Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.
5Woe is me, that I live in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
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← Psalm 120:2Psalm 120:4 →
Notice

The question addressed to a “deceitful tongue” turns attention from the harm lies cause to the reckoning that awaits the person who speaks them.

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What changes when the speaker turns from asking for deliverance to addressing the deceitful tongue?

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How does the next line’s answer, with arrows and burning coals, affect your reading of this question?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

8 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 52:4You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue.Both address a deceitful tongue, with Psalm 52 naming its love of devouring words and Psalm 120 asking what awaits it.
Jeremiah 9:8Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.Both confront deceitful speech; Jeremiah describes the danger concealed beneath a neighbor’s peaceful words.
Jeremiah 23:36You will mention the message from the LORD no more, for every man’s own word has become his message; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of the …Both confront the misuse of words, though Jeremiah addresses the specific offense of perverting the words of the living God.
Job 27:8For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?Both ask searching questions about the outcome of wrongdoing, though Job speaks of the godless person’s death rather than deceitful speech.
Genesis 39:14she called to the men of her house, and spoke to them, saying, “Behold, he has brought a Hebrew in to us to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I …The shared thread is speech against another person; Genesis records an accusation whose truth cannot be established from this excerpt alone.
Exodus 23:1“You shall not spread a false report. Don’t join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.Both treat false speech as serious wrongdoing: Exodus forbids spreading false reports, while the psalm asks what awaits the deceitful tongue.
Romans 6:21What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.Both passages ask what comes from wrongdoing; Romans names death as the end of the conduct it describes.
Matthew 16:26For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?Both use questions about what someone receives or gives to confront the grave consequences of human conduct.
Where this verse fits

Injustice and anger. work conflict.

What the Bible says about anger →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Psalm 120:2–4 aloud, pausing between each verse

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Encouragement

The next line answers with arrows and burning coals. The warning is severe; the distressed speaker has brought the harm of deceit before YHWH.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 120:3. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 120 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).