What Does Psalm 101:5 Mean?
Whoever tongue-lashes his neighbor in hiding, him I will cut off; the one with lifted eyes and a broad heart, him I cannot bear.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 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.
“lifted eyes” 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.
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.
You shall not walk about as a peddler among your people; nor stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the LORD.Lifted eyes and a wide heart, the plowing of the wicked, is missing the mark.Even so the tongue is a small limb, and it lifts its neck over great things. Look how great a forest a little fire kindles!THE THREAD
They whet their tongues like a serpent, and the venom of adders 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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