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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Psalms 12:2

People lie to their neighbors. They say whatever they think people want to hear.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Falsehood;   Flattery;   Heart;   Vanity;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Flattery;   Heart, Character of the Unrenewed;   Vanity;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Sheminith;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Hypocrisy;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Heaven;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Jonadab;   Zebulun;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Double-Minded;   Lips;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - English Versions;   Greek Versions of Ot;   Judges (1);   Lip;   Psalms;   Sin;   Vanity;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Hypocrisy;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Musician;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Psalms the book of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Double heart;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Immortal;   Joy;   Lip;   Music;   Psalms, Book of;   Vanity;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Godliness;   Hasidæans;   Son of Man;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
They lie to one another;they speak with flattering lips and deceptive hearts.
Hebrew Names Version
Everyone lies to his neighbor. With flattering lips, and with a double heart, do they speak.
King James Version
They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
English Standard Version
Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
New Century Version
Everyone lies to his neighbors; they say one thing and mean another.
New English Translation
People lie to one another; they flatter and deceive.
Amplified Bible
They speak deceitful and worthless words to one another; With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
New American Standard Bible
They speak lies to one another; They speak with flattering lips and a double heart.
World English Bible
Everyone lies to his neighbor. With flattering lips, and with a double heart, do they speak.
Geneva Bible (1587)
They speake deceitfully euery one with his neighbour, flattering with their lips, and speake with a double heart.
Legacy Standard Bible
They speak worthlessness to one another;With a flattering lip and with a double heart they speak.
Berean Standard Bible
They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.
Contemporary English Version
Everyone tells lies, and no one is sincere.
Complete Jewish Bible
Help, Adonai ! For no one godly is left; the faithful have vanished from humankind.
Darby Translation
They speak falsehood every one with his neighbour: [with] flattering lip, with a double heart, do they speak.
George Lamsa Translation
Men speak vanity, every one with his neighbour; with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak.
Good News Translation
All of them lie to one another; they deceive each other with flattery.
Lexham English Bible
They speak falseness to each other. With flattering lips, with a double heart they speak.
Literal Translation
They speak vanity, each man with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Euery man telleth lyes to his neghbor, they do but flater with their lippes and dissemble in their herte.
American Standard Version
They speak falsehood every one with his neighbor: With flattering lip, and with a double heart, do they speak.
Bible in Basic English
Everyone says false words to his neighbour: their tongues are smooth in their talk, and their hearts are full of deceit.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
King James Version (1611)
They speake vanitie euery one with his neighbour: with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speake.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Euery one vseth vayne talke with his neyghbour: and speaketh with a double heart out of flatteryng lippes.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Every one has spoken vanity to his neighbour: their lips are deceitful, they have spoken with a double heart.
English Revised Version
They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lip, and with a double heart, do they speak.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thei spaken veyn thingis, ech man to hys neiybore; thei han gileful lippis, thei spaken in herte and herte.
Update Bible Version
They speak falsehood every one with his neighbor: With flattering lip, and with a double heart, they speak.
Webster's Bible Translation
They speak vanity every one with his neighbor: [with] flattering lips [and] with a double heart do they speak.
New King James Version
They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
New Living Translation
Neighbors lie to each other, speaking with flattering lips and deceitful hearts.
New Life Bible
They lie to each other. Their lips speak with sweet-sounding words that are not true.
New Revised Standard
They utter lies to each other; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Deception, speak they, every one with his neighbour, - with lips uttering smooth things - with a heart and a heart, do they speak.
Douay-Rheims Bible
(11-3) They have spoken vain things, every one to his neighbour: with deceitful lips, and with a double heart have they spoken.
Revised Standard Version
Every one utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
Young's Literal Translation
Vanity they speak each with his neighbour, Lip of flattery! With heart and heart they speak.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
They speak falsehood to one another; With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.

Contextual Overview

1

To the director: With the sheminith. A song of David.

Save me, Lord ! We can no longer trust anyone! All the good, loyal people are gone. 2 People lie to their neighbors. They say whatever they think people want to hear. 3 The Lord should cut off their lying lips and cut out their bragging tongues. 4 Those people think they can win any argument. They say, "We are so good with words, no one will be our master." 5 They took advantage of the poor and stole what little they had. But the Lord knows what they did, and he says, "I will rescue those who are poor and helpless, and I will punish those who hurt them." 6 The Lord 's words are true and pure, like silver purified by fire, like silver melted seven times to make it perfectly pure. 7 Lord , take care of the helpless. Protect them forever from the wicked people in this world. 8 The wicked are all around us, and everyone thinks evil is something to be praised!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

They: Psalms 10:7, Psalms 36:3, Psalms 36:4, Psalms 38:12, Psalms 41:6, Psalms 52:1-4, Psalms 59:12, Psalms 144:8, Psalms 144:11, Jeremiah 9:2-6, Jeremiah 9:8

flattering: Psalms 5:9, Psalms 28:3, Psalms 62:4, Proverbs 20:19, Proverbs 29:5, Ezekiel 12:24, Romans 16:18, 1 Thessalonians 2:5

a double heart: Heb. an heart and an heart, 1 Chronicles 12:33, *marg. James 1:8

Reciprocal: Genesis 29:19 - General Genesis 34:13 - deceitfully Judges 8:18 - As thou art Judges 16:6 - General 1 Samuel 18:17 - her will I give 2 Samuel 11:8 - there followed him 2 Samuel 13:24 - let the king 2 Samuel 15:3 - thy matters 1 Kings 22:30 - and enter into the battle 1 Chronicles 12:17 - If ye be come 2 Chronicles 18:29 - put thou on thy robes Nehemiah 6:2 - they thought Nehemiah 6:10 - Let us meet Job 17:5 - He that Job 31:5 - walked Job 32:22 - I know not Psalms 50:19 - tongue Psalms 60:4 - because Proverbs 7:21 - With her Proverbs 10:18 - that hideth Proverbs 12:5 - counsels Proverbs 23:7 - Eat Proverbs 26:25 - speaketh fair Isaiah 58:9 - speaking Isaiah 59:15 - truth Jeremiah 9:4 - ye heed Jeremiah 12:6 - though Daniel 11:27 - shall be to Habakkuk 1:3 - General Matthew 2:8 - that Matthew 15:11 - but Matthew 22:16 - we know Mark 12:14 - Master Luke 6:45 - and an Luke 20:21 - Master Acts 12:22 - General Acts 23:20 - as Acts 24:2 - Seeing 1 Timothy 3:8 - doubletongued James 3:5 - so

Cross-References

Genesis 12:3
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you. I will use you to bless all the people on earth."
Genesis 12:4
So Abram left Haran just like the Lord said, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.
Genesis 12:6
Abram traveled through the land as far as the town of Shechem and then to the big tree at Moreh. The Canaanites were living in the land at that time.
Genesis 12:8
Then he left that place and traveled to the mountains east of Bethel. He set up his tent there. Bethel was to the west, and Ai was to the east. Abram built another altar at that place to honor the Lord , and he worshiped the Lord there.
Genesis 12:9
Then he moved on toward the Negev, stopping for a time at several places on the way.
Genesis 12:10
During this time there was not enough food in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live.
Genesis 12:14
So when Abram went into Egypt, the Egyptian men saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman.
Genesis 12:16
Pharaoh was kind to Abram because he thought Abram was Sarai's brother. He gave Abram sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and men and women servants.
Genesis 12:17
Pharaoh took Abram's wife, so the Lord caused Pharaoh and all the people in his house to have very bad diseases.
Genesis 12:18
Pharaoh called Abram and said to him, "You have done a very bad thing to me! Why didn't you tell me Sarai was your wife?

Gill's Notes on the Bible

They speak vanity everyone with his neighbour,.... That which is false and a lie, either doctrinal or practical; what was not according to the word of God, and was vain and empty, frothy, filthy, and corrupt; and which no godly and faithful man would do. And this being done in common, by the generality of men, one with another, shows the degeneracy of the age, and supports the complaint before made. They speak even

[with] flattering lips; as Cain did to Abel, Joab to Amasa, the Herodians to Christ, Judas to his Master, false teachers to those that are simple, hypocrites to God himself, when they draw nigh to him only with their lips, and all formal professors to the churches of Christ, when they profess themselves to be what they are not. And this is a further proof of the justness of the above complaint;

[and] with a double heart do they speak: or "with an heart and an heart" d; such are double minded men, who say one thing, and mean another; their words are not to be depended upon; there is no faithfulness in them. The Chinese e reckon a man of "two hearts", as they call him, a very wicked man, and none more remote from honesty.

d בלב ולב "in corde & corde", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Gejerus. e Martin. Sinic. Hist. p. 144. a heart having διχομυθον νοημα, a double meaning, as Pittacus says, Laert. in Vit. Pittac. l. 1. p. 53.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They speak vanity - This is a statement of the “manner” in which the “godly” and the “faithful” fail, as stated in Psalms 12:1. One of the ways was that there was a disregard of truth; that no confidence could be placed on the statements of those who professed to be pious; that they dealt falsely with their neighbors. The word “vanity” here is equivalent to “falsehood.” What they spoke was a vain and empty thing, instead of being the truth. It had no reality, and could not be depended on.

Every one with his neighbour - In his statements and promises. No reliance could be placed on his word.

With flattering lips - Hebrew, “Lips of smoothness.” The verb from which the word used here is derived - חלק chālaq - means properly to divide, to distribute; then, to make things equal or smooth; then, to make smooth or to shape, as an artisan does, as with a plane; and then, “to make things smooth with the tongue,” that is, “to flatter.” See Psalms 5:9; Proverbs 5:3; Proverbs 26:28; Proverbs 28:23; Proverbs 29:5. The meaning is, that no confidence could be placed in the statements made. There was no certainty that they were founded on truth; none that they were not intended to deceive. Flattery is the ascribing of qualities to another which he is known not to possess - usually with some sinister or base design.

And with a double heart - Margin, as in Hebrew, “a heart and a heart;” that is, as it were, with two hearts, one that gives utterance to the words, and the other that retains a different sentiment. Thus, in Deuteronomy 25:13, the phrase in Hebrew, “a stone and a stone” means, as it is translated, “divers weights” - one stone or weight to buy with, and another to sell with. So the flatterer. He has one heart to give utterance to the words which he uses toward his neighbor, and another that conceals his real purpose or design. No confidence, therefore, could be placed in such persons. Compare the note at Job 32:22.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 12:2. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour — They are false and hollow; they say one thing while they mean another; there is no trusting to what they say.

Flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak — בלב ולב beleb valeb, "With a heart and a heart." They seem to have two hearts; one to speak fair words, and the other to invent mischief. The old MS. both translates and paraphrases curiously.

Trans. Dayn spak ilkan til his neghbur: swykil lippis in hert, and thurgh hert thai spak.

Par. - Sothfastnes es lessed, and falsed waxes: and al sa vayn spak ilkone to bygyle his neghbur: and many spendes thair tyme in vayne speche withoutyn profyte and gastely frute. And that er swyku lippis; that er jangelers berkand ogaynes sothfastnes. And swykel, for thai speke in hert and thurgh hert; that es in dubil hert, qwen a fals man thynkes ane, and sais another, to desaif hym that he spekes with.

This homely comment cannot be mended.


 
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