What Does Psalm 15:3 Mean?
He does not walk upon his tongue, does no harm to his neighbor, nor lifts up a taunt against his neighbor.
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
He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.THE KEY
A reproach is a load: the verse describes a life that does not lift it and carry it against a neighbor.
THE MEANING
The reader’s speech does not travel as slander, harm is not done, and a neighbor’s reproach is not carried forward. Integrity includes refusing to turn another person’s disgrace into something held and repeated.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A reproach is harmless when it is only repeated, not originated.
THE ROOT
נָשָׂא
nasa
GROWS FROM
נשא
nasa
To lift, carry, or bear.
“lifts up” in this verse is nasa. The verb for taking up a reproach also means lifting and carrying a load. The verse presents accusation as something a person can take on and bear against a neighbor.
ALSO GROWS
massa: A load or burden.
מַשָּׂא
This branch makes the image concrete: a reproach can be borne like a weight.
nose: One who lifts or carries; a bearer.
נֹשֵׂא
This branch shows the person who takes up the charge as its carrier.
רָגַל
ragal
GROWS FROM
רגל
ragal
To go about on foot; by extension, to go about as a talebearer.
“does not walk upon” in this verse is ragal. The word rendered “backbiteth” connects slander with going about. English can make the harm sound like a single utterance, while the Hebrew also evokes speech that travels from person to person.
ALSO GROWS
regel: A foot.
רֶגֶל
This noun shares the root’s image of movement on foot.
meraggel: A scout or spy.
מְרַגֵּל
This branch carries the sense of someone who goes about, echoing how slander circulates.
THE PATTERN
A neighbor’s dignity is protected when harmful speech is neither circulated, enacted, nor carried as a charge.
You shall not lift up a false report; do not set your hand with the wicked to be a witness of violence.You shall not walk about as a peddler among your people; nor stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the LORD.Do not speak down against one another, brothers. The one who speaks down against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks down against the instruction and judges it. But if you judge it, you are not a doer of the instruction, but a judge.THE THREAD
You shall not lift up a false report; do not set your hand with the wicked to be a witness of violence.The Hebrew verbs for “raise” in Exodus and “taketh up” in this verse share נשא (nasa, “lift or carry”). Exodus names the report as something carried; Psalm 15:3 applies that same image to reproach against a neighbor.
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