What Does the Bible Say About Gossip and Backbiting?

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Hey, did you hear about so and so? Gossip! It can seem to start so innocently and then it becomes like a wildfire, spreading faster than you ever thought possible! What is gossip exactly and what does the Bible say about gossip and backbiting?

Read on to learn the answer to that question as well as take a deep dive into the Hebrew term “lashon hara” and the various types of gossip that exist.

What is Gossip?

Gossip is best defined by Miriam Webster as a person who repeats stories about other people; talk or rumors involving the personal lives of other people.

Now there are other definitions as well such as spreading rumors, etc. But as we will shortly see, in God’s economy, Miriam Webster got it right with this simple definition.

Repeating a story about others, whether rumor or true, can fall under the heading of gossip.

And it HAS been around a LONG time.

Lashon Hara – Gossip in the Bible

That’s right! Gossip did not just start here in recent history!

In fact, it goes back to Torah (the five Books of Moses).

Lashon hara literally means “evil tongue” or “evil language”. It is something that may be true but yet there is absolutely nothing to be gained or anything constructive in repeating it. It is unwholesome talk or a careless word spoken for no benefit.

For instance, if I see a friend’s husband out with another woman and I seek the counsel of a Pastor or Rabbi about how to handle the situation, that would not be lashon hara. That is done with good intention and for the purpose of seeking counsel and in an attempt to do the right thing.

However, if I run to another friend and repeat the information without any reason for doing so except to blab about it, that is lashon hara. It may be TRUE but there is no benefit in repeating it and can do great harm as well. You are being a simple babbler as my grandmother might say.

If it is NOT true and I am merely concocting a story (another form of gossip sadly) that is known as motzi shem ra, or literally “giving someone a bad name”. The Hebrew word ‘ra’ is bad or evil and we see this too in lashon hara.

‘Shem’ is name (such as in the name of God, Hashem – literally The Name) and motzi is to bring forth or give. Hamotzi is the blessing said over the bread because we thank God who “brings forth” bread from the earth.

So it is literally to give or bring forth a name that is bad or give a bad name!

So let’s continue on after that brief Hebrew lesson!

Motzi shem ra is much like what we know as slander or defamation.

So where does lashon hara occur in Torah?

Numbers 12:1-10:

Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on account of the Cushite woman he married, because he had married a Cushite woman. They asked, “Has Adonai spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t He also spoken through us?” 

Adonai heard it.

Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone on the face of the earth.

Immediately, Adonai said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “The three of you, come out to the Tent of Meeting.” So the three came out. Adonai descended in a column of cloud, stood at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and called to Aaron and Miriam.

The two of them stepped forward. “Hear now My words!” He said. “When there is a prophet of Adonai, I reveal Myself in a vision, I speak to him in a dream. 

Not so with My servant Moses. In all My house, he is faithful. I speak with him face to face, plainly and not in riddles. He even looks at the form of Adonai! Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?”

Adonai’s anger burned against them, and He left them.  When the cloud lifted up from above the Tent, behold, Miriam had tza’arat, like snow! As Aaron turned toward her, behold, she had tza’arat! 

TLV

Tza’arat is a skin disease, often referred to by people as leprosy.

So Miriam committed lashon hara against Moses and the Lord chastised Miriam and gave her a skin disease.

That is how seriously the Lord views lashon hara.

What Does the Bible Say About Gossip and Backbiting? – Let’s Dig in More!

So we have this one instance of lashon hara in the Bible but what does the Bible say about the sin of gossip overall? After all, as we have established, some gossip is true, and some are not.

Some are repeated in good conscience, some without being for a constructive reason, and some are repeated to outright harm someone or drive a wedge between people. We may call that having a backbiting tongue.

This sort of talk, the kind that is meant to cause division between people, is known in Hebrew as rechilut.

Before we get to what the Bible says about gossip, let me just share what the opinion of the sages was.

The sages have taught that it is a greater harm to hurt someone personally than financially because a person can always replace money but the shame that person incurs goes on and could follow him for his lifetime. They were of the opinion that to embarrass someone in public was akin to murder.

It would seem that Jesus would agree.

1 John 3:15 says:

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer—and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

TLV

Jesus held the opinion that hating someone was the same kind of wickedness of heart as murder. You can destroy a life in multiple ways, as the sages believed as well.

This would seem to align with what Maimonides said he indicated that wrong speech is a transgression that was equivalent to murder but even worse because it killed three people; the one who said it, the one who heard it, and the one about whom it was said.

It really makes you realize how destructive to the life of a person gossip and wrong speech can be.

So let’s go on to more of what the Bible says.

First, let me say that if someone comes to you in confidence to seek counsel or advice about an issue and you repeat that to another person without their consent, you need to examine your motives!

You are NOT being a good friend by sharing privileged information someone told you in confidence. You are a rachil.

In fact, you’re engaging in malicious talk and the harm of gossip will not only affect the person you speak about, but you as well as God’s Word is clear about the dangers of it.

It is something you need to repent of because not only are you guilty of gossip but you are guilty of trying to further damage a relationship between people that may already be strained.

You should always seek to try to help and not do more harm, and helping may very well be just staying out of the personal lives of other people!

If someone comes to you for godly counsel and you betray that trust, you are putting yourself on some dangerous footing as the result of gossip is giving way to the enemy in your life!

So let’s look at some verses now and see what the Bible says about gossip and the danger the tongue can cause?

If someone comes to you for godly counsel and you betray that trust, you are putting yourself on some dangerous footing and giving way to the enemy in your life! Click To Tweet

We can see that the tongue can present a LOT of problems for us if we allow it. The Bible tells us it is a small part of the body but look at what James 3:4-6 says about it:

Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

ESV

Our mischievous tongue is like a small fire capable of setting a great forest ablaze and each word spoken carelessly is like hot embers sparking that fire.

So the next step? Pray to ask the Lord to help us to always speak good things. We all fall prey to gossip from time to time. Most of the time I think it is innocent enough. We ALL slip up, we ALL fall short and in doing so we can ask for forgiveness.

We can also ask for the Lord to help us to set a guard over our mouths to help us avoid it. Here are some verses you can pray!

Blessings or Curses

You have a choice to make every single day! You can choose to bless others with the words of your mouth or curse them. You could give way to selfish ambition (after all, that is what gossip tends to result from) or mind your own affairs and stay out of the business of others.

You can choose to breathe life into someone’s world with your words or you can choose to bring them more trouble. You can choose to focus on loving others as God loves them or doing what the Lord hates.

You can choose to act with concern for the life of your neighbor with the use of edifying talk or engage in corrupting talk, irreverent babble, and subtle insinuations.

Be a blessing to another! Choose to see the good in them! Assume people have the best intentions and don’t mean to do evil toward you, making you retaliate with your words.

In today’s political climate, there is so much anger and backbiting. Let’s aspire to be different than the world!

We ARE different than the world! 

Do you have a favorite verse about gossip or the power of the tongue? Share them in the comments (I deliberately left many out so I could give you all a chance to share yours)!

What Does the Bible Say About Gossip and Backbiting? Click To Tweet

CJB – Taken from the Complete Jewish Bible by David H. Stern. Copyright © 1998. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Messianic Jewish Publishers, 6120 Day Long Lane, Clarksville, MD 21029. www.messianicjewish.net.

NASB – “Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation“

Tree of Life (TLV) – Scripture taken from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*. Copyright © 2014,2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society.  Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.

ESV  –  “Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”