PSALM 15

¹A David psalm.

LORD, who will sojourn in Your tent,

who will dwell on Your holy mountain?

²He who walks blameless

and does justice

and speaks the truth in his heart.

³Who slanders not with his tongue

nor does to his fellow man evil

nor bears reproach for his kin.

⁴The debased in his eyes is repugnant

but to LORD-fearers he accords honor.

When he vows to his fellow man,

he does not revoke it.

⁵His money he does not give at interest

and no bribe for the innocent takes.

He who does these

will never stumble.

PSALM 15 NOTES

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1. LORD, who will sojourn in Your tent, / who will dwell on Your holy mountain? The reference, of course, is to Mount Zion, but this line need not be understood literally, as some scholars propose, as a kind of entrance quiz for people coming into the Temple—that is, a set of questions posed by priests or Levites to the arriving pilgrims. Those who deserve to be in God’s special place are the people who exhibit the moral virtues that the psalm will enumerate. Although the two versets in fact refer synonymously to the same place, there is a progression in the language. The first verset uses a verb of temporary residence, gur, “sojourn,” appropriately paired with “tent,” originally the characteristic form of nomadic habitation, whereas the second verset uses “dwell” (sh-k-n), and by mentioning God’s holy mountain invokes the solid structure of the Temple.

2. He who walks blameless. The answer to the opening question is a catalogue of moral attributes. It is noteworthy that these are presented as an objective list of items without figurative elaboration; there is not a single metaphor in the poem. The enumerated virtuous acts all pertain to a person’s moral obligations to others. Neither cult nor covenant is involved.

3. Who slanders not with his tongue. This verset is absent in the text of Psalms discovered at Qumran. But the previous line is a stately triad; thus, there is poetic logic in this line’s being triadic as well.

nor bears reproach for his kin. The translation reproduces the cryptic formulation of the Hebrew. The meaning might be: When his kin behave badly, he does not pass over the misdeed in silence because of the kinship.

4. When he vows to his fellow man, / he does not revoke it. The Masoretic Text here is problematic. It appears to read: “he vows to do evil / and will not revoke it,” which is hardly an attribute one would attach to the moral person. But three ancient translations—the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Peshitta—read here instead of leharaʿ, “to do evil,” lereʿeihu, “to his fellow man,” which merely reverses the order of the consonants. It is the sort of error a scribe could have easily made.

5. no bribe for the innocent takes. The evident meaning is that he takes no bribe to declare the innocent guilty.

He who does these / will never stumble. This brief line succinctly—indeed, almost abruptly—summarizes the happy fate of the person who follows the moral path traced by the poem.