Psalms 14:3
He that speaketh truth in his heart, who hath not used deceit in his tongue: Nor hath done evil to his neighbour: nor taken up a reproach against his neighbours.
Open Psalms 14:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- qui loquitur veritatem in corde suo : qui non egit dolum in lingua sua, nec fecit proximo suo malum, et opprobrium non accepit adversus proximos suos.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὃς οὐκ ἐδόλωσεν ἐν γλώσσῃ αὐτοῦ, οὐδὲ ἐποίησεν τῷ πλησίον αὐτοῦ κακόν, καὶ ὀνειδισμὸν οὐκ ἔλαβεν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἔγγιστα αὐτοῦ·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 15:3
- לֹֽא רָגַ֨ל עַל לְשֹׁנ֗וֹ לֹא עָשָׂ֣ה לְרֵעֵ֣הוּ רָעָ֑ה וְ֝חֶרְפָּ֗ה לֹא נָשָׂ֥א עַל קְרֹֽבוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Heart, as he thinks. (Haydock)
Those who sincerely love truth, will not deceive others. (Calmet)
We must be attached to all revealed truths, and avoid all the disorders of the tongue.
Up, which would otherwise have fallen to the ground, &c. (Berthier)
Reproach. Rashly giving credit to injurious reports, (Calmet; St. Augustine; Exodus xxiii. 1.) or speaking with insult, (Theodoret) even in giving correction, (St. Hilary) or listening to detraction. (Worthington)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine On the Holy Trinity, The One Death and Resurrection of The Body of Christ Harmonizes with Our Double Death and Resurrection of Body and Soul, to the Effect of Salvation. In What Way the Single Death of Christ is Bestowed Upon Our Double Death
6. Therefore on this double death of ours our Saviour bestowed His own single death; and to cause both our resurrections, He appointed beforehand and set forth in mystery and type His own one resurrection. For He was not a sinner or ungodly, that, as though dead in spirit, He should need to be renewed in the inner man, and to be recalled as it were to the life of righteousness by repentance; but being clothed in mortal flesh, and in that alone dying, in that alone rising again, in that alone did He answer to both for us; since in it was wrought a mystery as regards the inner man, and a type as regards the outer. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XV
3. “Who speaketh 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 hath practised no deceit in his tongue” ( ver. 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 un derstood. …
St Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter X. We are warned not only in civil law, but also in the holy Scriptures, to avoid fraud in every agreement, as is clear from the example of Joshua and the Gibeonites
66. In everything, therefore, good faith is seemly, justice is pleasing, due measure in equity is delightful. But what shall I say about contracts, and especially about the sale of land, or agreements, or covenants? Are there not rules just for the purpose of shutting out all false deceit, and to make him whose deceit is found out liable to double punishment? Everywhere, then, does regard for what is virtuous take the lead; it shuts out deceit, it expels fraud. …
St Ambrose On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book I
61. So that one may rightly say that the Holy Spirit has this day told us by the voice of the boy reader: “He that is innocent in his hands and of a clean heart, who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor used deceit unto his neighbour, this is the generation of them that seek the Lord.” He, then, shall both ascend into the hill of the Lord and dwell in the tabernacle of God; because “he hath walked without spot, he hath worked righteousness, he hath spoken truth, he hath not deceived his neighbour;” nor did he lend his money for usury, who always wished [no more than] to retain that which was inherited.