Mazmur 52:4-5

52:4 You love to use all the words that destroy, ¹ 

and the tongue that deceives.

52:5 Yet ²  God will make you a permanent heap of ruins. ³ 

He will scoop you up ⁴  and remove you from your home; ⁵ 

he will uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)

Mazmur 59:12-13

59:12 They speak sinful words. ⁶ 

So let them be trapped by their own pride

and by the curses and lies they speak!

59:13 Angrily wipe them out! Wipe them out so they vanish!

Let them know that God rules

in Jacob and to the ends of the earth! (Selah)

Amsal 14:14

14:14 The backslider ⁷  will be paid back ⁸  from his own ways,

but a good person will be rewarded ⁹  for his.

Yehezkiel 35:6

35:6 Therefore, as surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will subject you to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.

Matius 7:2

7:2 For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive. ¹⁰ 

Matius 7:2

7:2 For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive. ¹¹ 

Matius 2:10-11

2:10 When they saw the star they shouted joyfully. ¹²  2:11 As they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, they bowed down ¹³  and worshiped him. They opened their treasure boxes and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, ¹⁴  and myrrh. ¹⁵ 

Wahyu 16:6

16:6 because they poured out the blood of your saints and prophets,

so ¹⁶  you have given them blood to drink. They got what they deserved!” ¹⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “you love all the words of swallowing.” Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallowing” in the sense of “devouring” or “destructive” (see BDB 118 s.v. בָּלַע). HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע proposes a homonym here, meaning “confusion.” This would fit the immediate context nicely and provide a close parallel to the following line, which refers to deceptive words.

² tn The adverb גַּם (gam, “also; even”) is translated here in an adversative sense (“yet”). It highlights the contrastive correspondence between the evildoer’s behavior and God’s response.

³ tn Heb “will tear you down forever.”

⁴ tn This rare verb (חָתָה, khatah) occurs only here and in Prov 6:27; 25:22; Isa 30:14.

⁵ tn Heb “from [your] tent.”

⁶ tn Heb “the sin of their mouth [is] the word of their lips.”

⁷ tn Heb “a turning away of heart.” The genitive לֵב (lev, “heart”) functions as an attributive adjective: “a backslidden heart.” The term סוּג (sug) means “to move away; to move backwards; to depart; to backslide” (BDB 690 s.v. I סוּג). This individual is the one who backslides, that is, who departs from the path of righteousness.

⁸ tn Heb “will be filled”; cf. KJV, ASV. The verb (“to be filled, to be satisfied”) here means “to be repaid,” that is, to partake in his own evil ways. His faithlessness will come back to haunt him.

⁹ tn The phrase “will be rewarded” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

¹⁰ tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured to you.”

¹¹ tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured to you.”

¹² tn Grk “they rejoiced with very great joy.”

¹³ tn Grk “they fell down.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”

¹⁴ sn Frankincense refers to the aromatic resin of certain trees, used as a sweet-smelling incense (L&N 6.212).

¹⁵ sn Myrrh consisted of the aromatic resin of certain shrubs (L&N 6.208). It was used in preparing a corpse for burial.

¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate that this judgment is the result of what these wicked people did to the saints and prophets.

¹⁷ tn Grk “They are worthy”; i.e., of this kind of punishment. By extension, “they got what they deserve.”