The tongue (of man or animals), used literally (as the instrument of licking, eating, or speech), and figuratively (speech, an ingot, a fork of flame, a cove of water)
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H3956 names the tongue and extends naturally to speech, language, and several tongue-shaped things. Moses describes himself as slow of tongue in Exodus 4:10, expressing a real sense of communicative limitation while God continues to call and help him.
Reader summary
Full entry for לָשׁוֹן (H3956) · Open the biblical lexicon
H3956 names the tongue and extends naturally to speech, language, and several tongue-shaped things. Moses describes himself as slow of tongue in Exodus 4:10, expressing a real sense of communicative limitation while God continues to call and help him.
The BSB source-word alignment has 117 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include tongue (22), their tongues (8), my tongue (5), your tongue (5), . . . (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 10:5. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (35), Proverbs (19), Isaiah (15), Job (9).
H3956 names the tongue and extends naturally to speech, language, and several tongue-shaped things. Moses describes himself as slow of tongue in Exodus 4:10, expressing a real sense of communicative limitation while God continues to call and help him. Proverbs 12:18 contrasts words that cut like a sword with the wise tongue that brings healing. Isaiah 50:4 joins a disciple's tongue to a listening ear and a word that sustains the weary.
Zephaniah 3:13 looks toward a remnant without lies or a deceitful tongue. The word does not make every spoken sentence equally powerful, nor does it reduce bodily speech differences to sin. H3956 helps teachers address truthful speech, linguistic diversity, praise, accusation, harm, healing, and disciplined testimony while distinguishing the organ, the act of speaking, a language community, and figurative tongue-shaped objects.
H3956 moves from the physical tongue to speech and language, then to tongue-shaped flame, land, or water imagery. Scripture evaluates speech by truth, justice, mercy, and covenant faithfulness rather than by fluency alone.
“Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”
Moses names slowness of speech and tongue as part of his reluctance, while the surrounding call narrative locates adequacy in God's presence and provision rather than natural eloquence.
Speaking rashly is like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
The proverb contrasts rash speech that pierces like a sword with wise speech that brings healing, making moral effect central without treating words as magical forces.
The Lord God has given Me the tongue of discipleship, to sustain the weary with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning; He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.
The servant's instructed tongue is paired with an awakened ear, so sustaining speech grows from receiving the Lord's instruction before addressing the weary.
The remnant of Israel will no longer do wrong or speak lies, nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths. But they will feed and lie down, with no one to make them tremble.”
Zephaniah describes the restored remnant as free from wrongdoing, lies, and a deceitful tongue, joining truthful speech to God's purifying and preserving work.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Tongue metonymically represents speech itself; extended figuratively to flame-tips and metal wedges via shared pointed shape.
Tongue metonymically represents speech itself; extended figuratively to flame-tips and metal wedges via shared pointed shape.
the tongue (of man or animals), used literally (as the instrument of licking, eating, or speech), and figuratively (speech, an ingot, a fork of flame, a cove of water) BDB: tongue Usage: babbler, bay, evil speaker, language, talker, tongue, wedge.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 117 lexical occurrence verses.
לָשׁוֹן is built from this root:
The term emphasizes speech as the outward expression of character.Proverbs 10:20
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H3956 refuses to separate speech from listening, character, and responsibility. Moses' slow tongue does not nullify God's call, and teachers should not shame stuttering, disability, accent, translation needs, or quiet temperament as spiritual defects. Proverbs shows that speech can injure or heal, but its sword image does not teach that every sentence mechanically creates reality.
Isaiah 50:4 places sustaining words after the Lord awakens the servant's ear. Faithful teaching therefore begins with receptive discipleship, careful understanding, and attention to the weary person's actual need. Zephaniah locates truthful speech within God's restoration of a people, not within self-engineered verbal perfection. Across Scripture, tongues may lie, accuse, praise, confess, teach, or name diverse languages.
Christian speech should be truthful and gracious, yet correction may still be necessary and lament may be intense. H3956 also protects embodied dignity: the tongue is not an independent moral agent, and communication differences do not measure the image of God. Pastors can call for repentance from slander or manipulation while providing interpretation, accessibility, time, and safety for those whose speech is constrained.
Isa.50.4
H3956 is a Hebrew noun whose semantic range includes the bodily tongue, spoken language, speech, and tongue-shaped extensions such as flame, land, or water. Context, modifiers, and parallel terms determine which sense is active.
The Old Testament uses H3956 for bodily tongues, languages, destructive or healing speech, praise, and restored truthfulness. The New Testament continues these concerns through teaching about the heart's overflow, confession, multilingual witness, disciplined teachers, and the tongue's disproportionate capacity for harm.