Psalms 36:1

Saith. Heb. ne’im, “an utterance.” The word occurs 361 times in all and is elsewhere used exclusively of divine utterances, generally in the expression “saith the Lord” (Gen. 22:16; etc.). Sometimes the prophet is presented as the speaker (Num 24:3, 15; Prov. 30:1). In the verse under consideration is a most unusual use of the word. Transgression is personified and presented as repeating a divine oracle. Sin comes to speak to the sinner as though it were the voice of God.

My heart. Several Hebrew manuscripts, the LXX, and the Syriac read “his heart.” This reading seems to be more in harmony with the context. The first sentence then becomes literally, “the utterance of transgression [or, “transgression saith”] to the wicked in the midst of his heart.”

Fear. Heb. pachad, “trembling,” “dread.” This is not the word for “fear” generally appearing in the expression “fear of the Lord” (see on Ps. 19:9). Pachad is not “fear” in the sense of “reverence,” or “worship,” but “fear” in the sense of “dread,” as the “fear of the enemy” (Ps. 64:1), or “fear of evil” (Prov. 1:33). Paul quotes the second sentence of Ps. 36:1 in support of his thesis on the depravity of the wicked (Rom. 3:18).