to walk along · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
tongue
לְשֹׁנ֗וֹle.sho.No
H3956
the tongue (of man or animals) · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
doeth
עָשָׂ֣ה'a.Sah
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
evil
רָעָ֑הra.'Ah
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
neighbour
לְרֵעֵ֣הוּle.re.'E.hu
H7453
an associate (more or less close) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
up
נָשָׂ֥אna.Sa'
H5375
to lift · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
reproach
וְ֝חֶרְפָּ֗הve.cher.Pah
H2781
contumely · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
neighbour
קְרֹֽבוֹke.Ro.ov
H7138
near (in place · adjective, masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Romans 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Psalms 101:5-8 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.
Matthew 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
James 4:11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judget…
Leviticus 19:16 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.
3 John 1:11 Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
Jeremiah 9:4-9 Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will…
Exodus 23:1-33 Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 15:1–end
Here is, I. A very serious and weighty question concerning the characters of a citizen of Zion (Psa 15:1): "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Let me know who shall go to heaven." Not, who by name (in this way the Lord only knows those that are his), but who by description: "What kind of people are those whom thou wilt own and crown with distinguishing and everlasting favours?" This supposes that it is a great privilege to be a citizen of Zion, an unspeakable honour and advantage, - that all are not thus privileged, but a remnant only, - and that men are not entitled to this privilege by their birth and blood: all shall not abide in God's tabernacle that have Abraham to their father, b…
He that backbiteth not with his tongue,.... Is not a slanderer, a defamer, a tale bearer; a backbiter is one who privately, secretly, behind a man's back speaks evil of him, devours and destroys his credit and reputation: the word here used comes from which signifies the "foot", and denotes such a person who goes about from house to house, speaking things he should not, 1 Timothy 5:13; and a word from this root signifies spies; and the phrase here may point at such persons who creep into houses, pry into the secrets of families, and divulge them, and oftentimes represent them in a false light. Such are ranked amongst the worst of men, and are very unfit to be in the society of the saints, o…
Psalm 15:3
3. He that slandereth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his companion, nor raiseth up a calumnious report against his neighbor.
David, after having briefly set forth the virtues with which all who desire to have a place in the Church ought to be endued, now enumerates certain vices from which they ought to be free. In the first place, he tells them that they must not be slanderers or detractors; secondly, that they must restrain themselves from doing any thing mischievous and injurious to their neighbors; and, thirdly, that they must not aid in giving currency to calumnies and false reports. Other vices, from which the righteous are free, we shall meet with as we proceed. D…
The Church Fathers
"Who speaks the truth in his heart." For some have truth on their lips, and not in their heart. As if one should deceitfully point out a road, knowing that there were robbers there, and should say, If you go this way, you will be safe from robbers; and it should turn out that in fact there were no robbers found there: he has spoken the truth, but not in his heart. For he supposed it to be otherwise, and spoke the truth in ignorance. Therefore it is not enough to speak the truth, unless it be so also in heart. "Who has practised no deceit in his tongue" [Psalm 15:3]. Deceit is practised with the tongue, when one thing is professed with the mouth, another concealed in the breast. "Nor done evil to his neighbour." It is well known that by "neighbour," every man should be understood. "And has not entertained slander against his neighbour," that is, has not readily or rashly given credence to an accuser.
He who has practiced no deceit with his tongue: he who has uttered in speech what he has pondered in his mind. Nor has done evil to his neighbor. Some think that a neighbor is a brother, or a fellow townsman, or a kinsman, or a blood relation. But our Lord teaches in the Gospel in that parable, where a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho: a priest passed by, a Levite passed by, and had no pity: a Samaritan passed by, and had pity. And afterward the Lord asks, and says: Which of these was a neighbor? At once it is answered: He who did well. And the Lord adds: Go and do you likewise. All men, therefore, are neighbors to us, and we ought to do evil to none. But if we understand neighbors to be brothers and kinsmen, then are we permitted to do evil to strangers? But far be it to believe so. We are all men neighbors to men: for we have one Father. And has not accepted reproach against his neighbors. A great thing is said. Never, he says, has a neighbor murmured against him; never, he says, has he found any occasion to disparage him. This virtue exceeds the human condition, it is God's grace.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Backbite — In Ps. 15:3, the rendering of a word which means to run about tattling, calumniating; in Prov. 25:23, secret talebearing or slandering; in Rom. 1:30 and 2 Cor. 12:20, evil-speaking, maliciously…
Evil-speaking — Is expressly forbidden (Titus 3:2; James 4:11), and severe punishments are denounced against it (1 Cor. 5:11; 6:10). It is spoken of also with abhorrence (Ps. 15:3; Prov. 18:6, 7), and is foreign to…
Psalms, Book Of — The present Hebrew name of the book is Tehill’im, “Praises;” but in the actual superscriptions of the psalms the word Tehillah is applied only to one, (Psalms 145:1) ... which is indeed emphatically…
Backbiting · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Holiness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Slander · Characterized as avoiding — Characterized as avoiding
Speaking · WISDOM IN — WISDOM IN
Talebearer · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The distich which contains the question and that containing the general answer are now followed by three tristichs, which work the answer out in detail. The description is continued in independent clauses, which, however, have logically the value of relative clauses. The perff. have the signification of abstract presents, for they are the expression of tried qualities, of the habitual mode of action, of that which the man, who is the subject of the question, never did and what consequently it is not his wont to do. רגל means to go about, whether in order to spie out (which is its usual meaning), or to gossip and slander (here, and the Piel in Sa2 19:28; cf. רכל, רכיל). Instead בּלשׁנו we hav…
The godly speak truthfully and act faithfully in their relationships. Unlike the wicked, they are open and transparent (12:2-4).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 15:3
He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.
After the positive comes the negative. "He that backbiteth not with his tongue." There is a sinful way of backbiting with the heart when we think too hardly of a neighbour, but it is the tongue which does the mischief. Some men's tongues bite more than their teeth. The tongue is not steel, but it cuts, and it's wounds are very hard to heal; its worst wounds are not with its edge to our face, but with its back when our head is turned. Under the law, a night hawk was an unclean bird, and its human image is abominable everywhere. All slanderers are the devil's bellows to blo…
