What Does Psalm 15:5 Mean?
He does not give his silver at interest, nor take a gift against the clean one. He who does these will not totter for the ages.
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 putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.THE KEY
The verse joins money that bites and judgment bought with the same outcome: a life that refuses both does not totter.
THE MEANING
Your footing is tied to how you handle another person’s need and innocence: money does not bite into their resources, and judgment is not sold against them. This verse presents that integrity as a life that remains unshaken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that extracting profit from need or buying an unjust outcome can secure you; the verse places lasting stability with the one who refuses those gains.
THE ROOT
נֶשֶׁךְ
neshekh
GROWS FROM
נשך
n-sh-k
to bite
“at interest” in this verse is neshekh. The word translated “usury” comes from the root for biting. The image reveals a charge that bites into the resources of the person who needs the loan, giving the verse’s warning a physical edge.
ALSO GROWS
nashakh: to bite
נָשַׁךְ
This is the verb behind the image: the lender’s extra charge is described with the language of a bite.
neshekh: interest or usury
נֶשֶׁךְ
This noun names the charge as the bite itself, linking financial gain to what it takes from the borrower.
שֹׁחַד
shochad
GROWS FROM
שחד
sh-ḥ-d
to bribe
“a gift” in this verse is shochad. The “reward” here is a bribe, a payment that bends judgment against an innocent person. Alongside the bite of usury, it shows two ways gain can take hold: by pressing on need or by purchasing a verdict.
ALSO GROWS
shachad: to bribe
שָׁחַד
The verb names the act of using payment to influence a decision.
shochad: a bribe or corrupting gift
שֹׁחַד
The noun identifies the payment the verse refuses when it is used against the innocent.
יָמוֹט
yamut
GROWS FROM
מוט
m-w-t
to totter, slip, or waver
“totter” in this verse is yamut. “Moved” carries the image of losing one’s footing. Set beside the refusal to profit by biting another’s resources or bending justice, the verse connects steady ground with hands free of those gains.
ALSO GROWS
mot: to totter or slip
מוֹט
This form carries the root’s basic image of unstable footing.
emmot: I totter or slip
אֶמּוֹט
The same root appears in the first-person form in Psalm 16:8, where the speaker says he will not be moved.
THE PATTERN
Refusing to make another person’s need or innocence a source of gain is bound to a life with firm footing.
Do not take a bribe, for the bribe blinds the open-eyed and twists the words of the aligned.He who multiplies his wealth by bite and by growth shall gather it for the one who favors the emptied.Look, the wages of the workers who mowed your fields, stripped away by your fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have gone into the ears of the LORD of hosts.THE THREAD
Throw your load upon the LORD, and he holds you. He does not give the aligned one to totter for the ages.The same Hebrew root, מוט (m-w-t), appears in “never be moved.” Psalm 15 links an unshaken life with refusing profit from need and bribery; Psalm 55 uses the same image for the righteous person sustained by the LORD.
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