Sunday, December 4, 2011

Psalm 15:3

Copyright Ó 2011 J. Neely
Psalm 15:3

3 He that backbiteth [ragal] not with his tongue, [lashown] nor doeth [`asah] evil [ra`] to his neighbour, [rea`] nor taketh up [nasa'] a reproach [cherpah] against his neighbour. [qarowb] KJV-Interlinear

3 He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend;  NASB

Backbiteth, ‘ragal,’ means to go about, to foot it, to speak evil, to gossip, and then comes to mean one who goes around slandering or to circulate gossip and so forth.

The spiritually positive believer does not go around judging or maligning, or promoting themselves at the expense of someone else.  They do not pretend to have interesting information, nor promote bad talk against others.

Evil to a neighbor, means to cause harm in any way to folks that live close by, or to folks in general, regardless of where they live.  It typically is concerned with business dealings, but can apply to all dealings with other people, as the spiritually positive believer deals fairly with others, even if they deal abusively or belligerently with him.

Taking up a reproach, refers to the hearing of gossip or bad news about others.  The spiritually positive believer does not have knee jerk reactions, does not take all that is heard as truth, does not automatically believe and therefore judge others based on news about them.  He does not grasp bad news and use it for greed or happiness at the expense of others.  This referring to unsubstantiated news or gossip.  He does not seek to take advantage nor take advantage of others, due to the difficulties of others.

The spiritually positive believer is slow to react and patient to consider the source and then merely lets the facts sort themselves out if at all.

The spiritually positive believer, does not seek advancement at the expense of others, treats others with honesty and integrity, and in accordance with fair practices and morals.

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