The verb devour translates a noun that may mean literally either “(words of) destruction, ruin,” or “(words of) confusion,” depending on which meaning is assigned to the Hebrew root (see K-B, Holladay); most prefer to take it in the former sense.

It is to be noticed that the meaning of O deceitful tongue is expressed in Good News Translation by “you liar”; New English Bible takes it not as a vocative, as Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation do, but as another subject of the verb You love, that is, “slanderous talk”; also New Jerusalem Bible “treacherous speech.” If the translator takes O deceitful tongue as a vocative, as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, it may be necessary to translate this synecdoche (“part for the whole” expression) as “you deceitful person” or “you who deceive people.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .