Romans 3:13

Their throat is an open sepulchre; With their tongues they have used deceit: The poison of asps is under their lips.

This progression to sins against fellow creatures was introduced by the last clause of Romans 3:12, quoted from Psalms 53:2. Paul did not invent this charge of wickedness, but only read it out of the Old Testament, the indictment being further detailed and stated in Psalms 5:9; Psalms 140:3. The figure of speech here shows how utterly repugnant to God was their unprincipled conduct. The thought is that the words coming from their throats were as foul as any odor that ever came out of an opened grave. Their language and conversation were full of deceit. No credibility could be given to anything that they said; and, in this light, it must not be thought of as anything unusual when they tried to sustain charges against the Saviour by means of suborned testimony, and bribed the Roman soldiers to lie about the resurrection of the Lord. "A generation of vipers" indeed were they (Matthew 3:7).