What Does Psalm 101:5 Mean in the King James?
Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
A hidden tongue and a high gaze expose the same movement: the self enlarges by reducing the neighbor.
THE MEANING
This verse addresses both secret speech that injures a neighbor and the posture that places the self above another. The speaker cuts off the slanderer and will not endure the high gaze and widened heart; concealment does not make contempt harmless. The way a neighbor is spoken of and the height from which they are seen both matter now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that what stays hidden cannot harm anyone. The verse treats secret slander and open self-exaltation as equally intolerable.
THE ROOT
מְלָשְׁנִי
melashni
GROWS FROM
לשן
l-sh-n
Tongue; to use the tongue against someone, to slander.
“slandereth” in this verse is melashni. The word for slander grows from the same root as לָשׁוֹן (lashon), meaning “tongue”: the text presents slander as a use of the tongue, not as a separate, weightless offense. Its secrecy hides the speaker, but it does not undo what the speech does to a neighbor.
ALSO GROWS
lashon: Tongue
לָשׁוֹן
The shared root shows that slander is speech turned against someone.
melashēn: One who slanders
מְלָשֵׁן
This verbal form names the person by the tongue-work they do, making the hidden act central to the verse.
גְּבַהּ עֵינַיִם
gevah enayim
GROWS FROM
גבה
g-b-h
To be high, rise, or become exalted.
“high look” in this verse is gevah enayim. The high gaze is more than a look: its root describes elevation. Paired with the secret slanderer, it shows contempt taking two forms, speech directed against a neighbor and a self-position raised above them.
ALSO GROWS
gavoah: High, lofty
גָּבֹהַּ
This adjective carries the root’s sense of height into the verse’s description of the eyes.
gavah: To rise, become high or proud
גָּבַהּ
The verb makes pride an act of elevation, matching the raised gaze.
רְחַב לֵבָב
reḥav levav
GROWS FROM
רחב
r-ḥ-b
To become wide, broad, or spacious.
“proud heart” in this verse is reḥav levav. The phrase literally pictures a broad heart. Width can suggest open space, but alongside high eyes it becomes self-expansion: the heart takes up room in a way that leaves the neighbor diminished.
ALSO GROWS
raḥav: Wide, broad
רָחָב
This is the root’s basic sense and the image used for the heart in the verse.
reḥov: A broad open place or square
רְחֹב
The related word carries the same sense of widening into open space, illuminating the verse’s image of an enlarged heart.
THE PATTERN
Speech that diminishes a neighbor and pride that exalts the self are both treated as destructive postures.
Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD.An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!THE THREAD
They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.The same Hebrew word for tongue, לָשׁוֹן (lashon), underlies both passages. Here the tongue is sharpened like a serpent’s weapon, making visible what secrecy conceals: hidden speech can still pierce.
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