James 3:5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.
How great a forest is set ablaze by a such a small fire!(A)
Read full chapter
Proverbs 18:21
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits.(A)
Jeremiah 9:3-8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 They bend their tongues like bows;
they have grown strong in the land for falsehood and not for truth,
for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they do not know me, says the Lord.(A)
4 Beware of your neighbors,
and put no trust in any of your kin,
for all your kin are supplanters,
and every neighbor goes around like a slanderer.(B)
5 They all deceive their neighbors,
and no one speaks the truth;
they have taught their tongues to speak lies;
they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent.[a](C)
6 Oppression upon oppression, deceit[b] upon deceit!
They refuse to know me, says the Lord.(D)
7 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:
I will now refine and test them,
for what else can I do with the daughter of my people?(E)
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
it speaks deceit through the mouth.
They all speak friendly words to their neighbors
but inwardly are planning to lay an ambush.(F)
Proverbs 12:18
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
18 Rash words are like sword thrusts,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing.(A)
Proverbs 15:2
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge,
but the mouths of fools pour out folly.(A)
Psalm 17:10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
10 They close their hearts to pity;
with their mouths they speak arrogantly.(A)
Psalm 73:8-9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.(A)
9 They set their mouths against heaven,
and their tongues range over the earth.
Psalm 12:2-4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 They utter lies to each other;
with flattering lips and a deceitful heart they speak.(A)
3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that makes great boasts,(B)
4 those who say, “With our tongues we will prevail;
our lips are our own—who is our master?”
Psalm 52:1-2
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Psalm 52
Judgment on the Deceitful
To the leader. A Maskil of David, when Doeg the Edomite came to Saul and said to him, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”
1 Why do you boast, O mighty one,
of mischief done against the godly?[a]
All day long(A) 2 you are plotting destruction.
Your tongue is like a sharp razor,
you worker of treachery.(B)
Footnotes
- 52.1 Cn Compare Syr: Heb the kindness of God
Psalm 10:3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 For the wicked boast of the desires of their heart;
those greedy for gain curse and renounce the Lord.(A)
Jeremiah 18:18
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
A Plot against Jeremiah
18 Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us bring charges against him,[a] and let us not heed any of his words.”(A)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 18.18 Heb strike him with the tongue
Jude 16
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
16 These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their lusts;[a] their mouths utter bombastic nonsense, flattering people to their own advantage.(A)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 16 Other ancient authorities read their own lusts
Ezekiel 28:2
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 Mortal, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus says the Lord God:
Because your heart is proud
and you have said, “I am a god;
I sit in the seat of the gods,
in the heart of the seas,”
yet you are but a mortal and no god,
though you compare your mind
with the mind of a god.(A)
Revelation 13:5-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 The beast was given a mouth speaking arrogant and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.(A) 6 It opened its mouth to speak blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.
Read full chapter
2 Peter 2:18
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
18 For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with debased[a] desires of the flesh they entice people who have just[b] escaped from those who live in error.
Read full chapter
2 Kings 19:22-24
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
22 Whom have you mocked and reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and haughtily lifted your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!(A)
23 By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, ‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses;
I entered its farthest retreat,
its densest forest.(B)
24 I dug wells
and drank foreign waters,
I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams of Egypt.’(C)
Daniel 4:30
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
30 and the king said, “Is this not magnificent Babylon, which I have built as a royal capital by my mighty power and for my glorious majesty?”(A)
Read full chapter
Job 22:17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Job 21:14-15
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
14 They say to God, ‘Leave us alone!
We do not desire to know your ways.(A)
15 What is the Almighty,[a] that we should serve him?
And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’(B)
Footnotes
- 21.15 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
Exodus 15:9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue; I will overtake;
I will divide the spoil; my desire shall have its fill of them.
I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’(A)
Daniel 3:15
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
15 Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, you should fall down and worship the statue that I have made. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”(A)
Read full chapter
Ezekiel 29:3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 speak and say: Thus says the Lord God:
I am against you,
Pharaoh king of Egypt,
the great dragon sprawling
in the midst of its channels,
saying, “My Nile is my own;
I made it for myself.”(A)
Exodus 5:2
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should listen to him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”(A)
Read full chapterNew Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.