Bible Strands
Psalms 101:3
I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — David (or a Davidic king) declares a personal vow before God, framed between vowing blameless conduct (v. 2) and rejecting a perverse heart (v. 4). The moment is self-commitment to govern and live without moral compromise.
The words — בְּלִי־יָעַל (bĕlî-yāʿal) is a fixed compound meaning "a thing of no value," carrying the sense of something that fails to function or serve any purpose. The verb אָשִׁית (ʾāšîṯ, "I will set") is deliberate and active, not passive avoidance but a willed act of placement.
The thread — Psalms 119:37 echoes the eye-motif directly ("Turn my eyes away from worthless things"), and Job 31:1 frames the same impulse as a sworn covenant with one's own eyes. James 1:13 extends the principle: God's nature excludes temptation, and the psalmist mirrors that exclusion in his own conduct.
Why it lands — The verse demands that the reader treat attention as a gate, not a window: moral integrity begins with what you refuse to let into your field of vision. It is not a claim of sinlessness but a commitment to curate, and it holds the reader to that same active choice.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
Cross-references
- Psalms 119:37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word.
- Job 31:1 “I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?
- James 1:13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.
- 2 Samuel 11:2 One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.
- Proverbs 6:25 Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.
- Matthew 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
- Psalms 40:4 Blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, who has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.
- Exodus 20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
- 1 Samuel 12:20 “Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “Even though you have committed all this evil, do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart.
- Romans 12:9 Love must be sincere. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good.