Psalm 12: Words Like Refined Silver

"Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak." A "double heart" is literally "a heart and a heart" (lev va-lev).

"The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things: Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?"

God speaks: "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him."

"The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD… The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted."

A divine oracle in a lament

12:5 is God's own voice, quoted in the middle of a lament, perhaps spoken by a prophet or priest in worship. It is one of the clearest examples of an oracle embedded in a psalm.

Refining silver

Silver was refined by cupellation: heating ore with lead in a clay crucible until impurities oxidized away. "A furnace of earth" may mean a clay crucible or furnace. "Seven times" means completely. Ancient smelting sites like Timna (pictured, for copper) show the industry behind the image.

A Reformation hymn

Martin Luther turned Psalm 12 into one of the first Lutheran hymns, "Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein" ("O God, look down from heaven"), printed in 1524. Its image of God's word as silver refined seven times was read as a defence of Scripture against human teaching.

Speech versus speech

The psalm contrasts human words (vanity, flattery, boasting: 12:2–4) with God's words (12:6). Human speech is double; God's is purified. The word imrah, "word," for God's promises recurs in Psalm 119.

The versions

The Greek and Latin number this Psalm 11 and keep the title "for the eighth." Hebrew counts the title as verse 1. The last verse is difficult: the KJV's "when the vilest men are exalted" is one of several possible renderings of an obscure line.