The first two lines of this verse come from Psalm 5.9 (v. 10 in some versions, e.g. New American Bible). The first line is transformed from a metaphor (literally “their throat is an open grave”) to a simile, their mouths are like an open grave. The last line of this verse comes from Psalm 140.3 and is connected in the Good News Translation with the preceding line. Wicked lies roll off their tongues is literally “with their tongues they deceive”; while and deadly words, like snake’s poison, from their lips goes back to “the poison of snakes is under their lips.” The Psalmist is comparing the words of his enemies to the poison of snakes, and the Good News Translation makes this comparison clear for its readers.

The figures of speech in this verse are difficult to translate in such a way as to make them meaningful. Their mouths are like an open grave can be understood in the sense that “their breath is so bad that it smells like a rotting corpse,” but that is not the meaning of the passage. The focus here is rather upon the death which is caused by what men say. Accordingly, in some languages, the first line of verse 13 may be rendered as “by their words they cause death.” One may, of course, employ in some languages an idiom such as “their mouths kill,” but it must be perfectly clear in a receptor language that the mouth is to be regarded as the organ of speech and therefore it is by speech that men are killed or destroyed. The same type of problem exists in the second line of verse 13, since in some languages one does not speak of the tongue as being the instrument of speech. Some receptor languages identify speech with the lips, others with the mouth, still others with the throat, while some do use the tongue in this figurative sense. It may be necessary, therefore, to say “with the throat men speak wicked lies” or “with their lips men utter wicked words.”

Deadly words are “words which cause death” or “… cause people to be killed.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .