Translations
The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.
His mouth is smoother than butter;
Yet his heart is at war;
His words are slicker than oil;
Yet they are drawn swords.
Words like butter pour from his lips;
But his heart is a battlefield;
His speech slides smooth as oil;
Yet every word is a drawn blade.
His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.
Footnotes
This verse is a masterclass in antithetical parallelism, each line pivoting on a 'yet': smoothness versus warfare, softness versus lethal violence. The contrast between machmao't (butter/cream) and qerav (battle/war), and between shemen (oil) and petichot (drawn swords, literally 'openings'—blades drawn from their sheaths), captures the essence of betrayal: the weapon is concealed within sweetness. F.O.G preserves the grammatical parallelism ('smoother than butter, yet… slicker than oil, yet…') to honor the Hebrew structural elegance; F.O.G.M redistributes the imagery for rhythmic impact and emotional immediacy, keeping both sets of contrasts fully audible.

