Psalm 12 → 120

Reasoning: 1413 Output: 3633 Total: 5046

Argument

Below are several ways to argue that **Psalm 120 is a logical “next step” after Psalm 12**, using (a) close lexical/phonological echoes, (b) shared form and rhetoric, and (c) a plausible “life-sequence” progression from **social corruption inside Israel** (Ps 12) to **the speaker’s felt displacement among hostile people** (Ps 120).

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## 1) The dominant shared topic is “evil speech”: *lips* and *tongue* as the enemy
Both psalms are unusually concentrated on the anatomy of deceitful speech, using **the same word-classes (nouns) and even the same pair**:

- **שָׂפָה / שְׂפָתַיִם** “lip(s)”
  - Ps 12:3–4 **שְׂפַת חֲלָקוֹת**, **שִׂפְתֵי חֲלָקוֹת**
  - Ps 120:2 **מִשְּׂפַת־שֶׁקֶר**

- **לָשׁוֹן** “tongue”
  - Ps 12:4–5 **לָשׁוֹן מְדַבֶּרֶת גְּדֹלוֹת**, **לִלְשֹׁנֵנוּ**
  - Ps 120:2–3 **מִלָּשׁוֹן רְמִיָּה**, **לָשׁוֹן רְמִיָּה**

That is a strong lexical bridge because it’s not merely “speech” vocabulary in general; it is the **specific paired body-part lexemes** (שפה + לשון) applied to **deceitful/aggressive discourse**.

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## 2) Psalm 120 reads like an individual “deployment” of Psalm 12’s societal diagnosis
Psalm 12 opens with a societal crisis:

- Ps 12:2 “faithful has vanished… the reliable have ceased”  
  (**גָמַר חָסִיד… פַסּוּ אֱמוּנִים**)

Then it describes what that collapse looks like on the ground: pervasive lying / smooth speech:

- Ps 12:3 “they speak emptiness… smooth lips… double heart”  
  (**שָׁוְא יְדַבְּרוּ… שְׂפַת חֲלָקוֹת… בְּלֵב וָלֵב**)

Psalm 120 can be argued to pick up that same crisis, but as the **speaker’s lived experience**:

- Ps 120:2 “Rescue me… from a lying lip, from a deceitful tongue”  
  (**מִשְּׂפַת־שֶׁקֶר… מִלָּשׁוֹן רְמִיָּה**)

So: **Ps 12 = diagnosis of a community saturated with lying speech; Ps 120 = the individual prayer of someone trapped inside exactly that world.** This is a natural logical progression.

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## 3) Shared root ד־ב־ר (speech) in closely comparable contexts
Both psalms hinge on the act of speaking:

- Ps 12:3 **יְדַבְּרוּ** “they speak” (plural, describing the corrupt crowd)  
- Ps 12:4 **מְדַבֶּרֶת** “speaking” (tongue speaking “great things”)
- Ps 120:7 **אֲדַבֵּר** “when I speak”

This supports a “follow-on” reading:
- Ps 12: **they** speak falsely/boastfully.
- Ps 120: **I** try to speak peace, but it triggers hostility: “when I speak, they are for war.”

The movement from **third-person depiction** (Ps 12: “they speak…”) to **first-person encounter** (Ps 120: “when I speak…”) is a coherent rhetorical continuation.

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## 4) Psalm 120 can be read as the narrative outcome of Psalm 12’s closing situation
Psalm 12 ends with the speaker surrounded:

- Ps 12:9 **סָבִיב רְשָׁעִים יִתְהַלָּכוּן**  
  “Wicked prowl all around…”

Psalm 120 opens in “distress” and then describes a prolonged social environment among hostile people:

- Ps 120:5–6 “Woe to me… I have sojourned… I have dwelt… long with those who hate peace.”

So Ps 120 can function like:  
**“What does life feel like when Ps 12:9 is true?”**  
Answer: it feels like being stuck “dwelling” among those who hate peace.

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## 5) Psalm 12’s divine promise (“now I will arise”) is naturally followed by Psalm 120’s testimony (“I called… he answered”)
Psalm 12 contains a divine oracle:

- Ps 12:6 **עַתָּה אָקוּם יֹאמַר יְהוָה**  
  “Now I will arise, says YHWH…”

Psalm 120 begins with a brief testimony that a prayer was answered:

- Ps 120:1 **אֶל־יְהוָה בַּצָּרָתָה לִּי קָרָאתִי וַיַּעֲנֵנִי**  
  “To YHWH, in my distress, I called, and he answered me.”

A plausible logical sequence is:
1) In Ps 12 God announces imminent intervention (“Now I will arise”).  
2) In Ps 120 the speaker reports answered prayer in distress (“He answered me”)—which reads like an experiential confirmation that the God who “arises” in Ps 12 is in fact answering.

This isn’t an identical lexeme link, but it’s a strong **speech-act / discourse** linkage: *divine speech of action (Ps 12) → human testimony of response (Ps 120)*.

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## 6) The rhetorical treatment of the “tongue” progresses: from boasting to weaponized violence
Psalm 12 frames the tongue as arrogant and socially destructive:

- Ps 12:4–5 “tongue speaking great things… ‘With our tongue we will prevail… who is lord over us?’”

Psalm 120 then intensifies the same “tongue” theme by turning it into literalized violence imagery:

- Ps 120:4 “Sharp arrows of a warrior, with coals of broom”  
  (**חִצֵּי גִבּוֹר שְׁנוּנִים… גַּחֲלֵי רְתָמִים**)

Thus Ps 120 can be read as the next escalation:
- Ps 12: the tongue is **boastful, smooth, deceitful** (social corruption).
- Ps 120: the tongue is **a weapon** that produces war (social breakdown turning into open conflict).

That is a coherent conceptual progression: *propaganda / deception → hostility / war*.

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## 7) A “life-sequence” connection: corruption at home leads to alienation/sojourning (Song of Ascents framing)
Psalm 120 is the first **שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת** (“Song of Ascents”), often associated with travel/pilgrimage or life away from the ideal center.

It’s easy to argue a life-sequence:
1) Ps 12: the psalmist experiences internal societal collapse (truth/faithfulness disappear; oppressive speech dominates).
2) Ps 120: the psalmist now feels like a **ger / sojourner** among “Meshech” and “Kedar”—a poetic way of saying “I’m living among alien, hostile, non-peaceful people.”

Even if “Meshech” and “Kedar” are partly symbolic, the logic works: **when the faithful vanish and the wicked prowl (Ps 12), the righteous person experiences displacement and estrangement (Ps 120).**

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### Summary claim
Psalm 120 can be defended as a logical continuation of Psalm 12 because both are built around the same unusually specific lexemes (**שָׂפָה**, **לָשׁוֹן**, and ד־ב־ר speech), the same core crisis (lying/treacherous discourse dominating society), and a coherent rhetorical/narrative progression from **general social diagnosis and divine promise** (Ps 12) to **personal deliverance-cry and lived exile among hostile speakers/war-makers** (Ps 120).

If you want, I can also lay this out as a strict “echo table” (Ps 12 phrase → Ps 120 phrase), and/or comment on which links are strongest under your “identical form > similar form” rule.

Evaluation

Score: 4.3

Evaluated at: 2026-02-18T02:16:20 (UTC)

Evaluator model: gpt-5.2

Evaluator version: v2

Reasoning: 512 Output: 4464 Total: 4976

Vocabulary specificity: 4.0 / 10

Accurate verse-anchored echoes (lip/tongue; “surrounded” vs “dwelling among haters of peace”), but these lexemes/motifs are common across Psalms; “arise→answered” and “tongue→arrows” are speculative; no counter-case addressed.

Prompt

Consider Psalm 12 and Psalm 120 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 120 logically follows on from Psalm 12? Consider stylistic similarities, similarities of form, similarities of vocab or ideas, shared roots (if you're doing the search in Hebrew), connections to sequences of events common in ancient Israelite life, mythology or history shared by the two psalms.

Rarer words are more significant than commoner words. Identical forms are more significant than similar forms. The same word class is more significant than different word classes formed from the same root. Identical roots are more significant than suppletive roots.

Psalm 12:
Psalm 12
1. לַמְנַצֵּ֥חַ
        עַֽל־
        הַשְּׁמִינִ֗ית
        מִזְמ֥וֹר
        לְדָוִֽד׃
2. הוֹשִׁ֣יעָה
        יְ֭הוָה
        כִּי־
        גָמַ֣ר
        חָסִ֑יד
        כִּי־
        פַ֥סּוּ
        אֱ֝מוּנִ֗ים
        מִבְּנֵ֥י
        אָדָֽם׃
3. שָׁ֤וְא ׀
        יְֽדַבְּרוּ֮
        אִ֤ישׁ
        אֶת־
        רֵ֫עֵ֥הוּ
        שְׂפַ֥ת
        חֲלָק֑וֹת
        בְּלֵ֖ב
        וָלֵ֣ב
        יְדַבֵּֽרוּ׃
4. יַכְרֵ֣ת
        יְ֭הוָה
        כָּל־
        שִׂפְתֵ֣י
        חֲלָק֑וֹת
        לָ֝שׁ֗וֹן
        מְדַבֶּ֥רֶת
        גְּדֹלֽוֹת׃
5. אֲשֶׁ֤ר
        אָֽמְר֨וּ ׀
        לִלְשֹׁנֵ֣נוּ
        נַ֭גְבִּיר
        שְׂפָתֵ֣ינוּ
        אִתָּ֑נוּ
        מִ֖י
        אָד֣וֹן
        לָֽנוּ׃
6. מִשֹּׁ֥ד
        עֲנִיִּים֮
        מֵאַנְקַ֢ת
        אֶבְי֫וֹנִ֥ים
        עַתָּ֣ה
        אָ֭קוּם
        יֹאמַ֣ר
        יְהוָ֑ה
        אָשִׁ֥ית
        בְּ֝יֵ֗שַׁע
        יָפִ֥יחַֽ
        לֽוֹ׃
7. אִֽמֲר֣וֹת
        יְהוָה֮
        אֲמָר֢וֹת
        טְהֹ֫ר֥וֹת
        כֶּ֣סֶף
        צָ֭רוּף
        בַּעֲלִ֣יל
        לָאָ֑רֶץ
        מְ֝זֻקָּ֗ק
        שִׁבְעָתָֽיִם׃
8. אַתָּֽה־
        יְהוָ֥ה
        תִּשְׁמְרֵ֑ם
        תִּצְּרֶ֓נּוּ ׀
        מִן־
        הַדּ֖וֹר
        ז֣וּ
        לְעוֹלָֽם׃
9. סָבִ֗יב
        רְשָׁעִ֥ים
        יִתְהַלָּכ֑וּן
        כְּרֻ֥ם
        זֻ֝לּ֗וּת
        לִבְנֵ֥י
        אָדָֽם׃

Psalm 120:
Psalm 120
1. שִׁ֗יר
        הַֽמַּ֫עֲל֥וֹת
        אֶל־
        יְ֭הוָה
        בַּצָּרָ֣תָה
        לִּ֑י
        קָ֝רָ֗אתִי
        וַֽיַּעֲנֵֽנִי׃
2. יְֽהוָ֗ה
        הַצִּ֣ילָה
        נַ֭פְשִׁי
        מִשְּׂפַת־
        שֶׁ֑קֶר
        מִלָּשׁ֥וֹן
        רְמִיָּֽה׃
3. מַה־
        יִּתֵּ֣ן
        לְ֭ךָ
        וּמַה־
        יֹּסִ֥יף
        לָ֗ךְ
        לָשׁ֥וֹן
        רְמִיָּֽה׃
4. חִצֵּ֣י
        גִבּ֣וֹר
        שְׁנוּנִ֑ים
        עִ֝֗ם
        גַּחֲלֵ֥י
        רְתָמִֽים׃
5. אֽוֹיָה־
        לִ֭י
        כִּי־
        גַ֣רְתִּי
        מֶ֑שֶׁךְ
        שָׁ֝כַ֗נְתִּי
        עִֽם־
        אָהֳלֵ֥י
        קֵדָֽר׃
6. רַ֭בַּת
        שָֽׁכְנָה־
        לָּ֣הּ
        נַפְשִׁ֑י
        עִ֝֗ם
        שׂוֹנֵ֥א
        שָׁלֽוֹם׃
7. אֲ‍ֽנִי־
        שָׁ֭לוֹם
        וְכִ֣י
        אֲדַבֵּ֑ר
        הֵ֝֗מָּה
        לַמִּלְחָמָֽה׃