Psalms 59:12

[For] the sin of their mouth, [and] the words of their lips,.... The words may be read as one proposition, "the words of their lips [are] the sin of their mouth" (y); they speak nothing but evil;

For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak.

For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lip; for their ungodly, and injurious, and pernicious speeches, of which he speaks , and in many other places. Let them be taken, as in a snare, in order to their ruin. Let thy judgments overtake them. In their pride; for their proud and insolent speeches against thee, . For cursing and lying; for their execrations and lying reports, which they have raised or spread abroad concerning me. Which they speak; which they are ready to utter upon all occasions.

Psalms 59:12 [For] the sin of their mouth [and] the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying [which] they speak.Ver. 12. For the sin of their mouth, &c.] The Arabians have this proverb, Take heed lest thy tongue cut thy throat. Many a man’ s mouth is a purgatory to the master. Hard words must be reckoned for, Judges 1:15; the Jews find it so, and will do. And for cursing, &c.] Cursing men are cursed men.

(12) For the sin . . .—As the text stands, it runs: Sin of their mouth, word of their lips, and they are taken in their pride, and cursing and lying they say; where some would supply a copula, “The sin of their mouth is the word of their lips,” which seems tautological nonsense. But, perhaps, we should take the accusative as adverb of instrument: By the sin of their mouth, by the word of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride.And for cursing and lying which they speak.—That is, let their own malignant slanders, their blasphemous lies, recoil on their own heads; a frequent thought in the Psalms.

Verse 12. For the sin of their mouth] This verse has puzzled all the commentators. If we take חטאת chattath for sin-offering instead of sin, we shall get a better sense. Some of Nehemiah's enemies made a profession of the Jewish religion. Tobiah and his son were allied by marriage to the Jews; for Eliashib the priest had married his grandson to the daughter of Sanballat; and this produced a connexion with Tobiah, the fast friend of Sanballat. Besides this very priest had given Tobiah one of the great chambers in the house of the Lord, where formerly the meat-offerings, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithe of the corn and wine and oil were kept; Ne 13:4-13:5; Ne 13:7-9. And there were children of Tobiah (probably the same family) who professed to be of the Levites, Nethinim, or children of Solomon's servants; but as they could not show their father's house and their seed, whether they were of Israel; these, and others which were children of the priests, were put out of the priesthood, and out of the sacred service, as polluted; as having sprung from intermarriages with heathens. See Ezra 2:59-62. Tobiah was expelled from the house of the Lord by Nehemiah, and all his household stuff thrown out of doors: Ne 13:7-8. And this was doubtless one ground of the enmity of Tobiah to Nehemiah; and in this verse of the Psalm he may allude particularly to his occupancy of the chamber of offerings, which offerings, instead of being given to the Levites, were consumed by Tobiah and his household. This may be fairly gathered from Ne 13:6; Ne 13:10-11. Here then we have the sin of their mouth; their eating the offerings that belonged to the Levites; so that the temple service was deserted, the Levites being obliged to go and till the ground in order to obtain the means of life. And if we take חטאת chattath for sin-offering, it may refer to promises of sacrifice and offering which Tobiah and his family made, but never performed. They ate instead of offering them; and here was the sin of their mouth, in connexion with the words of their lips, and their cursing and lying which they spake, for which the psalmist calls upon the Lord to consume them, that they may not be, Psalms 59:13.

12. The A.V. gives the sense, though the precise construction is doubtful. Perhaps, The word of their lips is the sin of their mouth, i.e. every word they utter is sin: or, O the sin of their mouth! O the word of their lips! let them &c. let them even be taken] Caught in their own snare, their plots recoiling on themselves. Cp. Psalms 9:15; Psalms 35:8; Proverbs 11:6. in their pride] The atheistic self-sufficiency which says, Who doth hear? Cp. Psalms 10:4.

For the sin of their mouth ... - That is, in belching out words of reproach and malice, Psalms 59:7.

12. For the sin of their mouth—Hebrew, the sin of their mouth, the word of their lips; that is, every word of their lips is sin.