Psalms 12: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

A psalm that begins as a cry for help because faithful and loyal people have vanished, and everyone lies and flatters. The speaker says the LORD will silence flattering lips and boastful tongues, and quotes the LORD's own promise to rise up and bring safety because the poor are being crushed and the needy are groaning. The psalm then contrasts human speech with the LORD's words, which it calls pure like refined silver, and says the LORD will keep them and guard them from this generation. It closes by saying the wicked move about freely whenever what is vile is honored.

Claim by Claim

1. 12:1
   • The speaker calls on the LORD for help.
   • The godly man has come to an end.
   • The faithful have vanished from among the children of men.
2. 12:2
   • Each one speaks emptiness with his neighbor.
   • They speak with flattering lips.
   • They speak with a double heart.
3. 12:3
   • The LORD will cut off all flattering lips, stated in a form that can also be read as a wish that he cut them off.
   • The LORD will cut off the tongue that speaks proud things.
4. 12:4
   • Those with such lips and tongue have said something.
   • They said they will prevail with their tongue.
   • They said their lips are their own.
   • They asked who is lord over them.
5. 12:5
   • The LORD said he will now arise.
   • He arises because of the oppression of the poor.
   • He arises because of the sighing of the needy.
   • The LORD said he will set him in safety.
   • The one he is set safe from is described in a phrase that is ambiguous: either the one who puffs at him in scorn, or the one who pants and longs for safety.
6. 12:6
   • The words of the LORD are pure words.
   • They are like silver refined in a furnace of earth.
   • They are purified seven times.
7. 12:7
   • The speaker says the LORD will keep them.
   • The speaker says the LORD will preserve them from this generation forever.
8. 12:8
   • The wicked walk about on every side.
   • This happens when vileness is exalted among the sons of men.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

12:1

"LORD" printed in capitals stands for the personal name of God in Hebrew, written with four consonants (YHWH). Jewish readers did not say the name aloud, substituting the ordinary word for "lord" or "master," and English translations follow that practice by printing LORD. Where "lord" appears in ordinary letters, as in verse 4, it is the everyday word for a master or owner. The word behind "godly" is *hasid*, which is not mainly about piety: it describes someone who keeps faith with others, sticks by commitments, and can be relied on. It is paired here with a second word of almost the same sense, "faithful."

12:2

"Flattering lips" is literally "smooth lips" in Hebrew, speech with nothing rough to catch on, so it slides past you. "A double heart" is literally "a heart and a heart": two hearts in one person, one for what is said and one for what is meant. In Hebrew the heart is where thinking and deciding happen, not mainly feeling.

12:3

The Hebrew verb form can be read two ways, and translators divide over it: either as a flat statement of what the LORD will do, or as a wish or prayer, "may the LORD cut off." To "cut off" is a standard Hebrew idiom for removing or destroying something completely, not for silencing it temporarily.

12:4

"Prevail" means win, get the upper hand. "Our lips are our own" is a boast that their speech answers to nobody. The word translated "lord" in "who is lord over us" is an ordinary Hebrew word for master or owner, a different word from the divine name printed as LORD in verse 1.

12:5

"I will arise" pictures someone standing up from a seat to act (a judge rising to give a verdict, or a defender getting to his feet to take a case up.) "Him that puffeth at him" translates a Hebrew phrase that is genuinely obscure, and translators have never agreed on it. The word may describe an oppressor snorting or blowing in contempt at his victim; the same consonants can also be read as the victim panting or longing for rescue, giving "I will set in safety the one who longs for it"; a third reading connects it to a root meaning to testify, giving "the one who testifies against him."

12:6

Silver was purified by melting it in a crucible so that the impurities, called dross, rose to the surface and could be skimmed off; running the metal through the fire repeatedly produced a purer result each time. The Hebrew phrase behind "furnace of earth" is difficult, literally something like "in a crucible to the ground", and has been taken to mean a crucible made of fired clay, or one set into the ground. "Seven times" is the ordinary Hebrew way of saying completely or to the fullest degree, rather than an exact count.

12:7

Whom or what "them" refers to is disputed, and the Hebrew does not settle it: it may be the poor and needy of verse 5, whom God has just promised to protect, or the words of the LORD in verse 6. The grammar is odd in a way that suggests a copying difficulty, and some Hebrew manuscripts and ancient versions read "us" rather than "them" in the first line.

12:8

"Walk on every side" pictures them roaming about unchallenged, going wherever they like because no one stops them. The second line can be read either as "when vileness is exalted among human beings" or as "when the vilest of people are the ones raised to honor"; the Hebrew supports both.