Psalms 144:8

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Whose mouths speak deceit, Whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Download a study sheet

One document with this verse’s original text, its word-by-word gloss line, the meaning frame, cross-references with their text, attributed commentary, and full source and license credits — printable, and it pastes into notes with its structure intact.

This verse Autodidact and up

Study sheet (.html) Plain text (.txt)

A passage Seminary Student

Up to 50 verses in one chapter. A passage sheet keeps up to 6 commentary sources and 12 cross-references per verse, in the order this page ranks them, and says so on the sheet whenever that leaves anything out. Ask for a single verse and you get the Autodidact verse sheet above.

Everything on this page stays free to read, with no account — the sheet is a download of what is already on screen, not access to it.

Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer

Word by word

More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →

Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →

שָׁ֑וְא

shâvᵉʼ

H7723

“vanity”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 54× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 20:7

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from the same as H7722 in the sense of desolating

TWOT: 2338a

emptiness, vanity, falsehood - emptiness, nothingness, vanity - emptiness of speech, lying - worthlessness (of conduct)

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

7: words
6: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

שָׁ֑וְא vanity H7723 occurs in 48 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

1 verb
5 nouns
1 particle

Verb forms

דִּבֶּר Piel · Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וִֽ֝ימִינָ֗ם right hand H3225 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 13 words from the Hebrew and 15 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 7 Hebrew tokens and 11 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Psalms 144:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Psalms 12:2 Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.
Psalms 41:6 If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes abroad, he tells it.
Psalms 62:4 They fully intend to throw him down from his lofty place. They delight in lies. They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah.
Isaiah 44:20 He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can't deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?
Genesis 14:22 Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have lifted up my hand to Yahweh, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth,
Deuteronomy 32:40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, And say, As I live forever,
Psalms 10:7 His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.
Psalms 58:3 The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

Psalms 106:26 Therefore he swore to them That he would overthrow them in the wilderness,
Psalms 109:2–3 For they have opened the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit against me. They have spoken to me with a lying tongue.
Isaiah 59:5–7 They hatch adders' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
Matthew 5:30 If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not your whole body be thrown into Gehenna.
Revelation 13:16–17 He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands, or on their foreheads;

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

You’re reading Greek Psalm 143 (Hebrew Psalm 144). The Septuagint counts the superscription, so verse numbers can differ from the Hebrew — chapter-level alignment, not verse-by-verse. Numbering follows Rahlfs.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Psalms 144:8 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

אֲשֶׁ֣ר פִּ֭יהֶם דִּבֶּר שָׁ֑וְא וִֽ֝ימִינָ֗ם יְמִ֣ין שָֽׁקֶר

Whose mouths speak deceit, Whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Greek Psalm 143:8 Septuagint · lemma form

ὅς ὁ στόμα λαλέω ματαιότης καί ὁ δεξιός αὐτός δεξιός ἀδικία

whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Psalms 144:8 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Psa 144:8 Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand [is] a right hand of falsehood.

Ver. 8. Whose mouth speaketh vanity] They keep touch no further than will serve their own turns.

And their right hand] No, though they give their hands upon it that they will keep promise.

Multis annis iam transactis,

Nulla fides est in pactis.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. A. Alexander on Psalms

Joseph Addison Alexander

8. (Psa 144:8) Whose mouth speaks fraud, and their right hand (is) a right hand of falsehood. The word translated fraud is properly a negative meaning vanity or emptiness, but applied to the want of moral goodness and especially of truth. See above on Psa 24:4. The right hand is mentioned in allusion either to the practice of swearing with uplifted hand (Psa 106:26), or to that of striking hands in bargains (2Ki 10:15). There seems to be reference, in this verse, to the feigned obedience of the enemy, Psa 18:44.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

For though they shake hands, yet they keep not promise.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Right hand of falsehood.—Most probably with allusion to the custom (see Psa_106:26) of raising the right hand in taking an oath.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

8. vanity] i.e. falsehood: cp. Psa_12:2; Psa_41:6.

their right hand &c.] Uplifted in swearing a solemn oath. Cp. Psa_106:26.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Whose mouth speaketh vanity,.... Vain words, lies, flatteries, and deceit, Psa 12:2; when they speak loftily of themselves, and contemptuously of others; when they deliver out threatenings against some, and make fair promises to others; it is all vanity, and comes to nothing;

and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood; their strength and power to perform what they boast of, threaten, or promise, is fallacious, is mere weakness, and cannot effect anything; or their treaties, contracts, and covenants, they enter into and sign with their right hand, are not kept by them; they act the treacherous and deceitful part. The Latin interpreter of the Arabic version renders it, "their oath is an oath of iniquity"; and Ben Balaam in Aben Ezra, and R. Adnim in Ben Melech, say the word so signifies in the Arabic language; and Schultens (m) has observed the same: but the word in that language signifies the right hand as well as an oath, and need not be restrained to that; it is better to take it in the large sense, as Cocceius (n) does; whether they lifted up the hand to pray, or to swear; or gave it to covenant with, to make contracts and agreements; or stretched it out to work with; it was a right hand of falsehood.

(m) Observat. Philolog. p. 195. (n) Lexicon, col. 312.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Those mouth speaketh vanity - Vain things; things not real and true; falsehood; lies. See the notes at Psa 24:4. The idea is, that what they said had no foundation in truth - no reality. Truth is solid and reliable; falsehood is unreliable and vain.

And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood - The meaning here seems to be that even under the solemnities of an oath, when they lifted up their hands to swear, when they solemnly appealed to God, there was no reliance to be placed on what they affirmed or promised. Oaths were taken by lifting up the right hand as toward God. See Gen 14:22; Exo 6:8 (Margin, and Hebrew); Deu 32:40.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Vanity; either,

1. Vain brags and threatenings, which shall come to nothing; or,

2. Vain and deceitful promises, or professions, or friendship. Their right hand; here mentioned either,

1. As it is used in swearing, to note their perjury; or rather,

2. As an instrument of action. Is a right hand of falsehood; deceiving either,

1. Themselves, by being unable to do what they designed; or,

2. Others, by not giving them that help which they promised to them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Treasury of David

Charles H. Spurgeon

Ver. 8. Whose mouth speaketh vanity. No wonder that men who are vanity speak vanity. "When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. "They cannot be depended upon, let them promise as fairly as they may: their solemn declarations are light as the foam of the sea, in no wise to be depended upon. Good men desire to be rid of such characters: of all men deceivers and liars are among the most disgusting to true hearts.

And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. So far their hands and their tongues agree, for they are vanity and falsehood. These men act as falsely as they speak, and prove themselves to be all of a piece. Their falsehood is right handed, they lie with dexterity, they deceive with all their might. It is a dreadful thing when a man's expertness lies more in lies than in truth; when he can neither speak nor act without proving himself to be false. God save us from lying mouths, and hands of falsehood.

Ver. 8. Whose mouth speaketh vanity, etc. Two things go naturally together in the versethe lying tongue and deceitful hand. The meaning is that upon the matter in hand nothing was to be looked for from any of their promises, since it was only to deceive that they flattered with their mouth and gave the hand. John Calvin.

Ver. 8. Their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. The pledge of the right hand, which used to be a witness of good faith, was violated by treachery and wickedness. Cicero. Philip. xi. c. 2.

Ver. 8. What is "a right hand of falsehood"? Ask the hypocrite, the schemer, the man of false doctrine, the boaster, the slanderer, the man who forgets his promise, the apostate.

Psalms 144:9*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Whose mouth speaketh vanity; rather, fraud. (comp. Psa_18:45) A feigned submission of some foreign enemy is probably glanced at. And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. The right hand was lifted up in the taking of a solemn oath. (see Eze_20:15)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Vanity - Vain brags and threatenings which shall come to nothing. Falsehood - Deceiving themselves, by being unable to do what they designed; and others, by not giving them that help which they promised.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

Whose mouth speaks vanity, etc. Scripture connects vanity with the mouth and falsehood with the right hand. When they come to tell with their mouth, they invent exaggerations of vanity, even to misrepresent what is known. If they come to stretch forth their right hand to swear, they refrain from vanity, lest they be caught as thieves, but they do swear falsely, for so is their lot.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Psalms, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 7 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is shâvᵉʼ (“vanity”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word shâvᵉʼ carries the sense “vanity.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Exodus 20:7, which shares the word «vanity», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “right hand” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«דִּבֶּר» is a Piel Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and J. A. Alexander on Psalms read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 7 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 10 words in this verse.
“right hand” occurs 2× in this single verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.