Psalms 15:4 - Exposition

In whose eyes a vile person is contemned . So the LXX ; the Vulgate, Ewald, Hupfeld, Hengstenberg, and the Revised Version. Others prefer to translate, "He is despised in his own eyes, [and] worthless" (Abort Ezra, Hitzig, Delitzsch, Kay, 'Speaker's Commentary'). Either rendering furnishes a good sense; but the law of parallelism is very decidedly in favour of the former. As the righteous man honors those who fear God, so he contemns those who are vile or worthless. He is no respecter of persons. Men's outward circumstances are nothing to him. He awards honour or contempt according to men's moral qualities. But he honoreth them that fear the Lord. "It is no common virtue," says Calvin, "to honour pious and godly men, since in the opinion of the world they are often as the offscouring of all things ( 1 Corinthians 4:13 )? He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. The righteous man, if he happens to have sworn to do something which it turns out will be to his own hurt, nevertheless keeps his engagement (comp Le Psalms 5:4 , where לְהָרַע is used in the same sense).