Matthew 15:4-9 Honoring your parents

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 23 Sep 2012

Translation

14:34 And after they crossed over, they went on land into Gennesaret.

14:35 Then, once the men of that place recognized Him,

they sent emissaries into all that surrounding country

and brought to Him all those who were bad-off,

14:36 and they were calling Him aside in order to just touch the fringe of His clothing,

and as many as touched were delivered.

 

15:1 Then the Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem approached Jesus saying,

15:2 “For what reason do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?

For they are not rinsing their hands whenever they eat bread!”

15:3 But He, in answer, said to them,

“And as for you, for what reason do you transgress the law of God through your tradition?

15:4 For God issued commands saying,

‘Honor your father and your mother,’

and ‘He who curses father or mother must end in death.’

15:5 but as for y’all, you say,

‘Whoever shall say to his father or mother,

“Whatever you might be obligated [to receive] from of me was a donation,”

15:6 thus he never has to honor his father or his mother,’

and y’all invalidate the command of God on account of the tradition of yourselves!

15:7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied well concerning you, saying,

15:8 ‘This people is honoring me with their lips,

yet their heart keeps far away from me.

15:9 And it is in vain that they are devoting themselves me

while teaching commandments of men for doctrines.’”

Introduction:

  • Last week, we looked at the contrast between the sincere worship of the men of Genneseret on the one hand (which was accepted by Jesus even though they didn’t have a perfect theological knowledge) and, on the other hand, the legalism of the Pharisees (who were very knowledgeable of the Bible and yet honored their man-made traditions over God’s word).
  • We saw that by knowing what God’s word does and does not say, we can “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free” (M. Henry) and we can extend grace to those with traditions different than ours.
  • This is the context in which Jesus calls the Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem “Hypocrites” and points out that they were violating the 5th Commandment “Honor your father and mother…”
  • One of the most common prayer requests I hear when I talk with middle-aged people is their concerns about the care of their parents. As their parents get to advanced age, their health fails and they are not able to take care of themselves as well, so they need help, and choices need to be made: Do we leave them alone with the risks? Do we put them in an institution? Do we take them into our own homes? The elderly parents struggle with the humiliation of becoming dependent on other people for things they didn’t used to need help with, and often the middle-aged children struggle because they weren’t prepared to take their parents into their homes and care for them for years on end. I’d like to take the time to consider some of these issues as we study this passage:

Exposition

15:4 For God issued commands saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘He who curses father or mother must end[1] in death,’

ο γαρ θεος ενετειλατο λεγων[2] τιμα τον πατερα [3] και την μητερα και ο κακολογων πατερα η μητερα θανατω τελευτατω

  • The first phrase is practically an exact quote from the Septuagint 10 Commandments of Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16, and it is repeated verbatim in Matthew 19:19 with the review of the 10 commandments, and again in Ephesians 6:2.
    • Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God commanded thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long upon the land, which the Lord thy God gives thee.” (Deuteronomy 5:16 Brenton)
    • This command, like all the others, is an overarching principle with many applications.
    • A couple of years ago, Dr. Zachary took us through a study of the 10 Commandments, and we studied the Westminster Catechism’s exposition on what it means to honor parents. The Catechism does a good job of explaining it[4].
    • Let me introduce another good source for explaining the teachings of the Bible, and that is the writings of good Bible commentators. I have been particularly impressed with Matthew Henry’s commentary on Matthew, so I turned to see what he had to say about the 5th Commandment in Exodus 20:12-17. I think he expounded well on the meaning of this command: “‘Honour thy father and thy mother’… includes:
      1. A decent respect to their persons, an inward esteem of them outwardly expressed upon all occasions in our conduct towards them. Fear them, give them reverence. The contrary to this is mocking at them and despising them.
      2. Obedience to their lawful commands; so it is expounded: ‘Children, obey your parents,’ come when they call you, go where they send you, do what they bid you, refrain from what they forbid you; and this, as children, cheerfully, and from a principle of love. Though you have said, ‘We will not,’ yet afterwards repent and obey,
      3. Submission to their rebukes, instructions, and corrections; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward, out of conscience towards God.
      4. Disposing of themselves with the advice, direction, and consent, of parents, not alienating their property, but with their approbation.
      5. Endeavouring, in every thing, to be the comfort of their parents, and to make their old age easy to them, maintaining them if they stand in need of support…

By our Savior’s application of this law, it appears that denying service or relief to parents is included in cursing them… [B]y paying respect to them whom Providence has made the instruments of our being, we give honor to him who is the Author of it.” ~Matthew Henry (references removed)

  • The second passage Jesus references is again almost an exact quote of the Septuagint, this time from Ex. 21:17 “He that reviles his father or his mother shall surely die.” (Brenton)[5]
    • It is also stated in Lev. 20:9 “Every man who shall speak evil of his father or of his mother, let him die the death; has he spoken evil of his father or his mother? he shall be guilty.” (Brenton)
    • Now this one should be troubling if you think about it. Does this mean that the police should kill every child who says something bad about their parents?
  • What does κακολογων mean?
    • We can begin by looking at the meaning of the word in the original Bible languages:
      • the Greek word here is a compound of the word for “bad” (kakos) and the word for “speaking” (logwn). So a literal rendering would be “speaks ill of.”
      • This Greek word is a translation of the original text of Exodus in Hebrew, the verb qll, which literally means “to make light of.”
      • Our English Bibles translate it: CursesKJV,NIV/revilesESV/speaks evil of NAS
    • We can continue seeking the meaning of this by looking at every place that this Greek word is used in the Bible (The following OT passages are the Brenton English translation of the Greek Septuagint where the word occurs, and the NT passages are the NASB English translation):
      • Exodus 21:17 He that reviles his father or his mother shall surely die.
      • Exodus 22:28 Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor speak ill of the ruler of thy people.
      • 1 Samuel 3:13 And I have told him that I will be avenged on his house perpetually for the iniquities of his sons, because his sons spoke evil against God, and he did not admonish them.
      • Proverbs 20:20 The lamp of him that reviles father or mother shall be put out, and his eyeballs shall see darkness.
      • Mark 7:10 "For Moses said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER'; and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH';
      • Mark 9:39 But Jesus said, "Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.
      • Acts 19:9 But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.
      • The concept of simply saying something bad as well as the concept of ridiculing, as well as the concept of uttering a curse could fit any one of these contexts.
    • Finally, we can compare this principle with what the rest of Scripture says:
      • According to the Bible, only God (who has all power over the issues of life and death and who is the ultimate judge) and the State (which has the power of the sword – Rom. 13) can deliver a death sentence as a punishment, so this statement cannot be speaking to families or individuals or churches, except as a warning of the judgment of God or the judgment of the State on a matter over which God or the State has jurisdiction.
      • Since we are not the ones who are ordained to carry out judgments in the case of personal offenses against God, the passage can only be talking about what the State should do.
      • This also cannot be talking about putting children to death for careless talk, since God never gave the State jurisdiction over everyone’s speech.
      • I conclude therefore that this is addressing situations where a child is in serious, unrepentant rebellion against parents, has made public defamatory statements that he refuses to apologize for, and is in such an advanced state of rebellion against all forms of order in society that he threatens civil order and must be put to death to protect the people around him. The state would have jurisdiction to put someone to death in a case like that.
      • There is, however, a sense in which even a careless snide remark aimed at your parents could lead to death, and that is in God’s jurisdiction.
        • Anyone who has dishonored his parents even a little bit by saying something disrespectful about them or toward them (and that means every one of us!) has broken the 5th commandment and thus sinned against God.
        • If Jesus said in Matt. 5:22 that calling your brother Racca/Fool was enough to send you to the fires of hell, then aggravating the offense by saying it to your own parents is not going to go over well before the judgment seat of God.
        • As such, every one of us is guilty of the punishment that God has decreed for breaking His commandments, and that is death. (Ezekiel 18:20 “The soul that sin[s], it shall die.” KJV, cf. Gen. 2:17, Rom. 6:23)
        • This is why Jesus came. He said, “Father, I know that you will be making Paula Wilson the mother of Amos Wilson and that you want Amos to honor his mother in order to accept your providence in his life, but I also know that Amos is going to gripe about what his mom told him to do and that you will find that offensive that he does not like the ordering of his life which you so graciously give him. I also know that the only just way to make up for that is for Amos to die for his sin. Let me therefore offer myself in his place. I like Amos. I want him to be close to me forever, so I want to be killed according to your judicial punishment for his sin in order that his sin may be paid for, so he can live and be close to me forever. Let’s also send our Spirit to move his heart with sorrow over the way he will dishonor his mom and convict him that he deserves your punishment of eternal death so that he will beg me to be his savior and want to be close to me forever.” And that, dear friends, is the good news of Jesus, if you’ll believe it!
    • Whatever the case, we must agree that this second quote from the law in Matthew 15:4 underscores the fact that the 5th commandment is nothing to trifle with, since its violation could be punished so severely by death. (J. Calvin)
  • However, man in rebellion to God, does not want to live under the freedom of the simplicity of God’s commands. Apart from God, humans make up complex and contradictory systems of rules. This is what Jesus points out to contrast the rabbinical code with God’s commands:

 

15:5 but as for y’all, you say, ‘Whoever shall say to his father or mother, “Whatever you might be obligated [to receive] from of me was a donation,”

υμεις δε λεγετε ος αν ειπη τω πατρι η τη μητρι δωρον ο εαν εξ εμου ωφεληθης

 

15:6 thus he never has to honor his father or his mother,’ and you invalidate the command of God on account of the tradition of yourselves!

[και[6]] ου μη τιμηση[7] τον πατερα αυτου η την μητερα αυτου[8] και ηκυρωσατε την εντολην[9] του θεου δια την παραδοσιν υμων

  • Literally the text says that there’s something that a parent “might be obligated” about, related to their child, and the text says that the religious leaders were teaching the younger generation to call that thing a “gift” and be excused from honoring their parents. That’s all that the Greek text actually says.
  • But that’s a bit sketchy, so most translations provide words to explain the cultural background:
    • adding the concept that this would be something by which the parent would “be profited by”KJV – or “receive profitNKJ/helpNIV/gainESV” from the child.
    • The NASB adds that it is something that the child “has” that would “help” the parent.
    • Likewise, most translations elaborate that this thing can not merely be considered a “gift” in the generic sense, but specifically a gift “given/devoted to God,”
    • and thus it provides an exemption from honoring the parents by giving that help/ profit/ gain to the parents.
    • In other words, “My parents have a need that I can help with – perhaps they need money to pay the rent, or they need a ride to the hospital, or they need their lawn mowed, but I have declared that the time/money/resources that they have every right to ask me to help with, has instead been dedicated to God, so I don’t have to give it to my parents, I’ve already given it away to God. And if my parents complain that I’m not taking care of them like I should, the religious leaders will back me up.
  • The gospel of Mark (7:11) has a parallel account which uses the Hebrew word “Corban” instead of the Greek word “Dwron” which Matthew uses. Matthew later uses the word “Corban” (27:6) to denote offerings placed in the temple.
    • The Hebrew word “Corban” is the word used in Leviticus and Numbers to describe the offerings brought by people to the temple to offer to the Lord.
    • In many cases, the Corban was a live animal, and the worshipper would lay his hand on the Corban animal and confess their sins over it and kill it as a substitute for his own death before the Lord as justice for his sins and the sins of his family.
    • The Corban offering was the way that man approached his Maker, and was never intended to be a way for man to despise the commands of his Maker.
  • 18th Century Bible commentator John Gill was an expert in Jewish law and customs. He commented on a quote by the ancient rabbi Maimonides Hilchai that “vows supercede commandments” “insomuch, that if a man vows a vow, and [if, in order for it to be fulfilled], a command must be made void, his vow must stand, and the command be abrogated.”
  • Gill also cited a Jewish writing which describes a situation in Beth Horon where a man excluded his father by the Corban vow from receiving any profit from him, but the man had a son who wanted his grandpa to come to the wedding feast when he got married. Well, that put the father in a bind because he was paying for the wedding feast, but he had vowed not to use his income to help his parents, so he couldn’t invite his parents to the wedding! But this guy was a good legalist, so he came up with a legal loophole. He gave his savings for the wedding feast to a friend and asked his friend to host the wedding. He told his friend that the money was to cover the food costs for everybody except for his parents, and asked his friend to kick in a few dollars to cover the parents’ food, so that everybody, including the parents and grandparents could enjoy the wedding. That way the father was able to keep his Corban vow and still have his parents in on the wedding ceremony. This is for real! (Lb. c. 5. sect. 6.) You see how squirrely man-made legislation can get?
    • In fact, these hypocrites believed that they were honoring God by doing this, and they assured themselves that they would receive the blessing God promised to those who honor their parents – that they would “live long upon the land” – for instead dedicating their stuff to God in such a way as to prevent them from helping their parents.
  • This, of course, was part of a corrupt system:
    • 19th Century commentator Marvin Vincent, who was an expert on Mediterranean culture at the time of Christ wrote that this was all just a word-game to avoid responsibility. A son could merely pronounce the word “Corban” or “gift” over things he owned, and then he could continue to keep them in his possession and use them for himself, but now he was authorized by these religious teachers to say, “Oh, I’m sorry, Mom and Dad, I dedicated that to God so I can’t give it to you.”
    • “Sometimes unfilial sons paid graft to the rabbinical legalists for such dodges.” ~A.T.R.
    • “[S]cribes… were so keen to get their loot that in the meantime children neglected their parents.” ~J. Calvin
    • You may remember from European history how fabulously wealthy and powerful the churches got after the Middle Ages. According to Dr. Adam Clark, it was largely because of a superstitious practice by landowners to bequeath their land to the church instead of to their children when they died. Their wills commonly read, “For my sal­va­tion, and for the salvation of my predecessors, and for the salvation of my success­sors, and for the salvation of my wife… I give and bequeath to God and his Church, etc.” But of course God never said that anybody is saved by donating stuff to the church. That was a trick of unscrupulous priests to make up ecclesiastical rules for selfish ends. It resulted in fathers depriving their children of legitimate means of income and in distorting the economy of their whole nation.
  • But no amount of legal subterfuge or human affirmation can take away the fact that a child who won’t help his parents with a legitimate request is breaking God’s command #5.
    • Jesus says that by their workaround theyEkurwsate[10] / made of none effectKJV/ made voidESV/ invalidatedNAS /nullify”NIV the command to “honor your father and your mother” – as well as nullifying the command that a son who speaks in such a way as to bring deprivation and harm to his parents should be punished.
    • By the mere fiat of a human judgment they imagine that they can cancel out one of the 10 Commandments written by the finger of God! What arrogance!
    • But what does God say? Prov. 21:3 “To do righteousness and justice Is desired by the LORD more than sacrifice.” (NASB) If making a donation to charity violates the justice and righteousness of honoring your parents, God would prefer you not make that financial sacrifice but that you instead take care of your parents’ needs!
    • Brothers and sisters, let us not be big Pharisees who are looking for loopholes to squirm out of obeying our great God!

 

15:7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied well concerning you, saying,

υποκριται καλως προεφητευσεν[11] περι υμων ησαιας λεγων

 

15:8 ‘This people is honoring me with their lips, yet their heart keeps far away from me.

‘Ο λαος ‘ουτος[12] τοις χειλεσιν με τιμα η δε καρδια αυτων πορρω απεχει απ’ εμου

 

15:9 And it is in vain that they are devoting themselves to me while teaching commandments of men for doctrines.’”

ματην[13] δε σεβονται με διδασκοντες διδασκαλιας ενταλματα ανθρωπων

  • This quote follows the Septuagint of Isaiah 29:13 with only a few minor differences18.
  • The Greek manuscripts on which the KJV is based start earlier in the Isaiah quote than the Greek manuscripts that the more modern English translations are based on, so the KJV includes the part of the quote where God says, “They draw near to me with their mouth,” which is a parallel statement to, “they honor me with their lips” – and means the same thing: lip service, polite niceties, keeping up appearances, but it’s all fake.
  • The problem that Jesus saw among those Jewish leaders who didn’t believe in Him was the same as the problem among the faithless Jewish leaders of Isaiah’s day: Their heart was not in their religion.
    • They didn’t believe that God could decide for them what was right and wrong, and therefore they didn’t believe that they needed God to save them,
    • so when it came right down to it, they didn’t believe in God, but they kept acting religious in order to convince the people around them that they were good people.
  • This verse emphasizes that all the trouble they are going to in their ceremonies is in vain. “Their worship does not attain the end for which is was appointed; it will never please God nor profit themselves… prayers and sermons and Sabbaths and sacraments… beat the air in vain… if the heart be not with God in them.” ~Matthew Henry
    • In the Bible, Job was commended for keeping “far away” from evil (Job 1:1, 1:8, 2:3, 11:14, 22:23, 28:28 LXX), and also, there is nothing wrong with praise from the lips of people who love and obey Jesus (Hebrews 13:15), but there is nothing good about keeping “far away from” God.
    • That’s what Adam and Eve did the first time they disobeyed God – they tried to hide from Him.  It is a sign of rebellion and a lack of faith in God’s goodness and salvation to avoid getting close to God. And it won’t work, because God will always find us out. He can sense pretended devotion.
    • The Prophet Jeremiah also complained about people like this: “Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease? …You are near to their lips But far from their mind.” (Jer 12:1-2 NASB)
    • Ezekiel complained that “…they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain.” (Ezekiel 33:31b NASB)
    • And the Apostle Paul wrote that when hearts are hard like this, they are “excluded from the life of God” Eph. 4:18
    • What God wants is our heart, not just our words or ceremonies: Prov. 23:26 “My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.” (KJV)
  • The Greek word (sebeomai) translated “worship” in all the English Bibles is actually not the usual Greek word for worship (proskunew). It is more standardly used in the N.T. to indicate a “proselyte.” By this choice of words, Jesus says that acts of religious devotion performed by erstwhile Humanists are vain and are not even real worship.

Conclusion

Are there any ways that we justify violations of the commands of God on the basis of human judgments?

  • Men my age figure that we don’t have to do anything for our parents because they’re already taken care of by Social Security and their own retirement funds. But nowhere does God ever say that the elderly are supposed to take care of themselves or be taken care of by the civil government. What God tells us over and over is that families are to take care of their own. “He who does not provide for his own… household is worse than an infidel” wrote the Apostle Paul in 1 Tim. 5:8.
  • Some of you kids are too young to be worrying about financially supporting your parents, but you are still able to be a big help to your parents by doing household chores. Excusing yourself from taking out the trash or holding the baby when Mom or Dad asks you to, and justifying it by saying that you have homework or are in the middle of a project is the same sin as what Jesus is talking about here. Children, don’t be little Pharisees who make excuses for not honoring and helping your parents.
  • Of course this can happen in relation to any of God’s commandments – we can use our culture and traditions and clever theologies to explain away anything God demands of us that rubs us the wrong way.     In the exposition of Matthew 5, we already hit on many of the other ways we rationalize disobedience to God’s commands.
  • God said “obedience is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam. 15:22-23), and Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Anyone who doesn’t intend to keep His commandments can light all the incense they want, kneel and recite prayers all they want, and sing worship songs until they’re blue in the face, but it isn’t going to do any good because God is not going to accept these acts of devotion from someone who will not submit to God’s authority but instead does what other people tell him to do or does whatever he wants to do.
    • Anyone who majors on “teaching commandments/precepts/rules” that come from men is teaching that human beings have the divine authority to decide right from wrong and to decide what the purpose of their lives are without submission to what the Bible says. Those who teach the commandments of men for doctrine have rejected the authority and sovereignty of God, and are not of the true faith. This is what is wrong with many of the so-called liberal churches - and all of the cults.
    • Many historic churches and cults have also erred by presenting God as impersonal. They speak of a transcendent God outside of us, but their devotion is all external and outward show. This is an indication of a false religion in an impersonal God who does not build personal relationships with us. It is the religions which believe in impersonal gods (like Buddhism) or very distant gods (like Islam) that can be reduced to ceremonies.
    • But true Christianity believes in a very personal and very nearby God who cannot be manipulated by ceremonies. He is turned on by love, sincerity, truth, interpersonal communication, and trust. These qualities characterize persons who are interacting closely with each other, and these things (love, sincerity, truth-speaking, and trust) should characterize our worship of this personal God revealed to us in Jesus Christ and His word. (John 4:24).

 



[1] Let him die the deathKJV/be put to deathNAS,NIV,NKJ/must surely dieESV – The root of this Greek word means “end/complete/finish” and it is used of Herod the Great passing away (2:19) and of Jairus’ daughter too (9:18). Literally in Greek it is “must end in death,” but the repetition is due to the translation from Hebrew which follows the Hebrew idiom for emphasis in repeating the verb “dying he shall die.”

[2] Following B, D, Θ, f1, and f13, Critical editions have ειπεν instead of ενετειλατο λεγων. The Latin Vulgate translation also follows this variant. This word “commanded,” however, is found in the reiteration of the 5th commandment in the Greek translation of Deut. 5:16.

[3] The Textus Receptus edition has the word σου “you” here, following K, L, N, W, Θ, and f13, which is the Septuagint reading of Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16 (and is quoted with the “you” in it in Eph. 6:2), but it’s not in the Byzantine or Majority or Critical editions of Matt. 15:4, nor is it in the subsequent reference to the commandment in Matt. 19:19. Incidentally, the Deuteronomy 5:16 passage in the LXX includes a second sou after matera, an addition found in Uncials N and W at Matt 15:4, but almost nowhere else.

[4] #127 “…all due reverence in heart, word, and behavior; prayer and thanksgiving for them; imitation of their virtues and graces; willing obedience to their lawful commands and counsels; due submission to their corrections; fidelity to, defense, and maintenance of their persons and authority, according to their several ranks, and the nature of their places; bearing with their infirmities, and covering them in love, that so they may be an honor to them and to their government.”

[5] The Septuagint renders this verse κακολογῶν πατέρα αὐτοῦ μητέρα αὐτοῦ τελευτήσει θανάτῳ (bold facing represents agreement with the Matthew quote). The Masoretic Hebrew of this verse reads: ומקלל אביו ואמו מות יומת׃

[6] This conjunction is found in the Byz., Maj., and TR editions, following K, L, N, W, Γ, Δ, and f13. It’s also in the Vulgate and many Syriac translations, but it’s not in the Critical editions or the modern English translations.

[7] This Aorist Subjunctive is the reading of the Byz, Maj, and TR. It is spelled in the Future Indicative in the Critical editions with no explanation of the difference. The two are common variants of one another and very similar in meaning.

[8] Because of the absence of the phrase “and his mother” in Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Beza, Critical editions are divided over whether or not to include it, but it is in all the traditional Greek editions. The omission would not necessarily mean the mother wasn’t also included; after all they do share a house!

[9] This is the reading of the Byz., Maj., T.R., and Vulgate, following L, W and f1. This meaning would be buttressed by א, C, and f13, which read the synonym νομον (“law”). On the basis of B, D, and Θ (and an edited version of א), the Critical texts read τoν λογον “the word,” which could be supported by nomon because of visual and acoustic similarity. These all point in the same direction, however, which is the Pentateuch.

[10] This word is found in the Bible only in this statement from Jesus and in Gal 3:17, which see.

[11] Critical editions have a variant which is merely a different spelling of the same word, but no reason given.

[12] This is the reading of the Critical editions, following א, B, D, L, Θ, and f13 and is the reading of the Vulgate. The Byz, Maj, and T.R. include more of the quote from Isaiah 29:13, including two phrases, “They draw near” (which is in the LXX) and “with their mouth” (which is not in the LXX of Isa. 29:13). The quote in Matthew continues to follow the LXX except that the word “teachers” is placed at the end of the verse rather than as the third-to-last word, the verb “honor” is plural instead of singular, and there is an extra “of them” after “lips.”

[13] Found in the N.T. nowhere outside of this quote in Matt. & Mark, this word for vanity has clear roots in the O.T. - 1Ki. 21:20; Ps. 35:7; 39:6-11; 41:6; 63:9; 127:1-2; Pr. 3:30; Isa. 27:3; 28:17; 29:13; 30:4; 41:29; Jer.2:30; 4:30; 8:8; Ezek. 14:23.