3 Whose tongue is not false, who does no evil to his friend, and does not take away the good name of his neighbour;
I will put to death anyone who says evil of his neighbour secretly; the man with a high look and a heart of pride is disgusting to me. My eyes will be on those of good faith in the land, so that they may be living in my house; he who is walking in the right way will be my servant. The worker of deceit will not come into my house; the false man will have no place before my eyes. Morning by morning will I put to death all the sinners in the land, so that all evil-doers may be cut off from Jerusalem.
Do not let a false statement go further; do not make an agreement with evil-doers to be a false witness. Do not be moved to do wrong by the general opinion, or give the support of your words to a wrong decision: But, on the other hand, do not be turned from what is right in order to give support to a poor man's cause. If you come across the ox or the ass of one who is no friend to you wandering from its way, you are to take it back to him. If you see the ass of one who has no love for you bent down to the earth under the weight which is put on it, you are to come to its help, even against your desire. Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause. Keep yourselves far from any false business; never let the upright or him who has done no wrong be put to death: for I will make the evil-doer responsible for his sin. Take no rewards in a cause: for rewards make blind those who have eyes to see, and make the decisions of the upright false. Do not be hard on the man from a strange country who is living among you; for you have had experience of the feelings of one who is far from the land of his birth, because you yourselves were living in Egypt, in a strange land. For six years put seed into your fields and get in the increase; But in the seventh year let the land have a rest and be unplanted; so that the poor may have food from it: and let the beasts of the field take the rest. Do the same with your vine-gardens and your olive-trees. For six days do your work, and on the seventh day keep the Sabbath; so that your ox and your ass may have rest, together with the son of your servant and the man from a strange land living among you. Take note of all these things which I have said to you, and let not the names of other gods come into your minds or from your lips. Three times in the year you are to keep a feast to me. You are to keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days let your bread be without leaven, as I gave you orders, at the regular time in the month Abib (for in it you came out of Egypt); and let no one come before me without an offering: And the feast of the grain-cutting, the first-fruits of your planted fields: and the feast at the start of the year, when you have got in all the fruit from your fields. Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord God. Do not give the blood of my offering with leavened bread; and do not let the fat of my feast be kept all night till the morning. The best of the first-fruits of your land are to be taken into the house of the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk. See, I am sending an angel before you, to keep you on your way and to be your guide into the place which I have made ready for you. Give attention to him and give ear to his voice; do not go against him; for your wrongdoing will not be overlooked by him, because my name is in him. But if you truly give ear to his voice, and do whatever I say, then I will be against those who are against you, fighting those who are fighting you. And my angel will go before you, guiding you into the land of the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, and they will be cut off by my hand. Do not go down on your faces and give worship to their gods, or do as they do; but overcome them completely, and let their pillars be broken down. And give worship to the Lord your God, who will send his blessing on your bread and on your water; and I will take all disease away from among you. All your animals will give birth without loss, not one will be without young in all your land; I will give you a full measure of life. I will send my fear before you, putting to flight all the people to whom you come; all those who are against you will go in flight, turning their backs before you. I will send hornets before you, driving out the Hivite and the Canaanite and the Hittite before your face. I will not send them all out in one year, for fear that their land may become waste, and the beasts of the field be increased overmuch against you. Little by little I will send them away before you, till your numbers are increased and you take up your heritage in the land. I will let the limits of your land be from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the waste land to the river Euphrates: for I will give the people of those lands into your power; and you will send them out before you. Make no agreement with them or with their gods. Let them not go on living in your land, or they will make you do evil against me: for if you give worship to their gods, it will certainly be a cause of sin to you.
Let everyone keep watch on his neighbour, and put no faith in any brother: for every brother will certainly be tricking his brother, and every neighbour will go about saying evil. Everyone will make sport of his neighbour with deceit, not saying what is true: their tongues have been trained to say false words; they are twisted, hating to come back. There is wrong on wrong, deceit on deceit; they have given up the knowledge of me, says the Lord. So the Lord of armies has said, See, I will make them soft in the fire and put them to the test; this I will do because of their evil-doing. His tongue is an arrow causing death; the words of his mouth are deceit: he says words of peace to his neighbour, but in his heart he is waiting secretly for him. Am I not to send punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 15
Commentary on Psalms 15 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
The Conditions of Access to God
The preceding Psalm distinguished דור צדיק , a righteous generation, from the mass of the universal corruption, and closed with a longing for the salvation out of Zion. Psalms 15:1-5 answers the question: who belongs to this דור צדיק , and whom shall the future salvation avail? Psalms 24:1-10, composed in connection with the removal of the Ark to Zion, is very similar. The state of mind expressed in this Psalm exactly corresponds to the unhypocritical piety and genuine lowliness which were manifest in David in their most beauteous light on that occasion; cf. Psalms 15:4 with 2 Samuel 6:19; Psalms 15:4 with 2 Samuel 6:21. The fact, however, that Zion (Moriah) is called simply הר הקּדשׁ in Psalms 15:1, rather favours the time of the Absolomic exile, when David was cut off from the sanctuary of his God, whilst it was in the possession of men the very opposite of those described in this Psalm (vid., Psalms 4:6). Nothing can be maintained with any certainty except that the Psalm assumes the elevation of Zion to the special designation of “the holy mountain” and the removal of the Ark to the אהל erected there (2 Samuel 6:17). Isaiah 33:13-16 is a fine variation of this Psalm.
That which is expanded in the tristichic portion of the Psalm, is all contained in this distichic portion in nuce . The address to God is not merely a favourite form (Hupfeld), but the question is really, as its words imply, directed to God. The answer, however, is not therefore to be taken as a direct answer from God, as it might be in a prophetical connection: the psalmist addresses himself to God in prayer, he as it were reads the heart of God, and answers to himself the question just asked, in accordance with the mind of God. גּוּר and שׁכן which are usually distinguished from each other like παροικεῖν and κατοικεῖν in Hellenistic Greek, are alike in meaning in this instance. It is not a merely temporary גּוּר (Psalms 61:5), but for ever, that is intended. The only difference between the two interchangeable notions is this, the one denotes the finding of an abiding place of rest starting from the idea of a wandering life, the other the possession of an abiding place of rest starting from the idea of settled family life.
(Note: In the Arabic jâm ‛lllh is “one under the protection of God, dwelling as it were in the fortress of God” vid., Fleischer's Samachschari, S. 1, Anm. 1.)
The holy tabernacle and the holy mountain are here thought of in their spiritual character as the places of the divine presence and of the church of God assembled round the symbol of it; and accordingly the sojourning and dwelling there is not to be understood literally, but in a spiritual sense. This spiritual depth of view, first of all with local limitations, is also to be found in Psalms 27:4-5; Psalms 61:5. This is present even where the idea of earnestness and regularity in attending the sanctuary rises in intensity to that of constantly dwelling therein, Psalms 65:5; Psalms 84:4-5; while elsewhere, as in Psalms 24:3, the outward materiality of the Old Testament is not exceeded. Thus we see the idea of the sanctuary at one time contracting itself within the Old Testament limits, and at another expanding more in accordance with the spirit of the New Testament; since in this matter, as in the matter of sacrifice, the spirit of the New Testament already shows signs of life, and works powerfully through its cosmical veil, without that veil being as yet rent. The answer to the question, so like the spirit of the New Testament in its intention, is also itself no less New Testament in its character: Not every one who saith Lord, Lord, but they who do the will of God, shall enjoy the rights of friendship with Him. But His will concerns the very substance of the Law, viz., our duties towards all men, and the inward state of the heart towards God.
In the expression הולך תמים (here and in Proverbs 28:18), תמים is either a closer definition of the subject: one walking as an upright man, like הולך רכיל one going about as a slanderer, cf. היּשׂר הולך Micah 2:7 “the upright as one walking;” or it is an accusative of the object, as in הולך צדקות Isaiah 33:15 : one who walks uprightness, i.e., one who makes uprightness his way, his mode of action; since תמים may mean integrum = integritas , and this is strongly favoured by הלכים בּתמים , which is used interchangeably with it in Psalms 84:12 (those who walk in uprightness). Instead of עשׂה צדקה we have the poetical form of expression פּעל צדק . The characterising of the outward walk and action is followed in Psalms 15:2 by the characterising of the inward nature: speaking truth in his heart, not: with his heart (not merely with his mouth); for in the phrase אמר בּלב , בּ is always the Beth of the place, not of the instrument-the meaning therefore is: it is not falsehood and deceit that he thinks and plans inwardly, but truth (Hitz.). We have three characteristics here: a spotless walk, conduct ordered according to God's will, and a truth-loving mode of thought.
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 2 Samuel 19:28; cf. רכל , רכיל ). Instead בּלשׁנו we have על־לּשׁנו (with Dag . in the second ל , in order that it may be read with emphasis and not slurred over),
(Note: Vid., the rule for this orthophonic Dag . in the Luther . Zeitschrift , 1863, S. 413.)
because a word lies upon the tongue ere it is uttered, the speaker brings it up as it were from within on to his tongue or lips, Psalms 16:4; Psalms 50:16; Ezekiel 36:3. The assonance of לרעהוּ רעה is well conceived. To do evil to him who is bound to us by the ties of kindred and friendship, is a sin which will bring its own punishment. קרוב is also the parallel word to רע in Exodus 32:27. Both are here intended to refer not merely to persons of the same nation; for whatever is sinful in itself and under any circumstances whatever, is also sinful in relation to every man according to the morality of the Old Testament. The assertion of Hupfeld and others that נשׂא in conjunction with חרפּה means efferre = effari , is opposed by its combination with על and its use elsewhere in the phrase נשׁא חרפה “to bear reproach” (Psalms 69:8). It means (since נשׁא is just as much tollere as ferre ) to bring reproach on any one, or load any one with reproach. Reproach is a burden which is more easily put on than cast off; au dacter calumniare, semper aliquid haeret .