What Does Psalm 15:4 Mean?
In whose eyes the despised one is spurned, yet he gives weight to those in awe of the LORD. He swears to his own harm, and does not shift.
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
In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.THE KEY
Honor is giving weight to those in awe of the LORD; integrity is keeping your word when it costs you.
THE MEANING
A vile person is contemptible in your eyes, while those in awe of the LORD receive your honor. Your word remains binding even when keeping it brings you harm; its cost does not make it exchangeable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your word is binding only while it benefits you: the promise remains yours even when keeping it hurts.
THE ROOT
יְכַבֵּד
yekhabbed
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty; to give weight.
“gives weight to” in this verse is yekhabbed. The Hebrew word for honoring carries the sense of making someone weighty in your regard. Those who are in awe of the LORD are not merely approved of; they are given weight.
ALSO GROWS
kavod: Weight, honor, glory
כָּבוֹד
This familiar word for glory shares the root’s sense of weight, opening up the depth within “honoureth.”
kaved: Heavy, weighty
כָּבֵד
The ordinary sense of heaviness shows the image beneath the act of honoring: someone matters enough to carry weight.
יָמִיר
yamir
GROWS FROM
מוּר
m-w-r
To exchange or substitute; to put one thing in another’s place.
“does not shift” in this verse is yamir. The Hebrew also carries the sense of exchange: the pledged word is not swapped out when its cost arrives. The verse ties integrity to refusing to replace a promise with a more convenient one.
ALSO GROWS
hemir: To exchange or change
הֵמִיר
This verb uses the same root and makes the exchange sense visible in the act of changing.
temurah: Substitute, exchange
תְּמוּרָה
This related noun names a replacement, clarifying what the swearer refuses to do with his word.
יִרְאֵי
yir'ei
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear or stand in awe; with the LORD as the object, awe.
“those in awe of the LORD” in this verse is yir'ei. The phrase describes people oriented toward the LORD in awe. That stance marks who receives weight and honor in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
yare: To fear, stand in awe
יָרֵא
This form shows the root’s basic sense in a person’s relation to what is feared or revered.
yir'ah: Fear, awe
יִרְאָה
This noun carries the same root into the quality of awe named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Integrity gives weight to what is worthy and keeps a spoken commitment fixed when its cost changes.
What has gone out of your lips you shall guard and do, even a willing offering, according as you have vowed to the LORD your God, which you have spoken with your mouth.Lying lips make the LORD recoil, but those who work in trust are his delight.But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no. For whatever is more than these comes from evil.THE THREAD
Give weight to your father and your mother, that your days may lengthen upon the ground which the LORD your God gives you.“Honour” in both verses comes from כבד (k-b-d), the root behind kavod, “weight.” The shared word gives the same physical image: to honor someone is to let them carry weight in your regard.
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