Leviticus 19:16; Proverbs 18:8; Psalm 15:1-3
Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people.
The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Gossip is a very ready means of separating friends from one another.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): What a fearful amount of gossip or idle talk, the children of God are guilty of!
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): A very common vice, and as destructive as it is common.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Who but of Jesus can it be said, that he never slandered his neighbour, nor did evil to him, nor took up a reproach against him?
ANDREW BONAR (1810-1892): Gossip, idle talking, and meddling with our neighbour, and more directly still, insinuating and hinting evil of him are sins forbidden here.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): The smutting of another man’s good name in any kind behind his back is backbiting; it is an irreparable wrong; take heed of it.
GEORGE DOWNAME (1566-1634): For first, in Leviticus, where it is straightly forbidden, the “tale-bearer” is compared to a pedlar—so much does דכיל signify. For as the pedlar having bought his wares of someone goeth about from house to house that he may sell the same to others; so backbiters and tale-bearers, gathering together tales and rumours, as it were wares, go from one to another, with such wares as either themselves have invented, or have gathered by report, that they may utter in the absence of their neighbour to his infamy and disgrace.
ADAM CLARKE: The words backbite and backbiter come from the Anglo-Saxon bac—the back, and to bite. How it came to be used in the sense it has in our language, seems at first view unaccountable; but it was intended to convey the triple sense of knavishness, cowardice, and brutality. He is a knave, who would rob you of your good name; he is a coward, that would speak of you in your absence what he dared not to do in your presence; and only an ill-conditioned dog would fly at and bite your back when your face was turned. All these three ideas are included in the term; and they all meet in the detractor and calumniator. His tongue is the tongue of a knave, a coward, and a dog.
JOHN ROBINSON (1575-1625): Slanderers may be called devilish, seeing the devil hath his name of slandering.
JOHN TRAPP: Some say that the word signifies to speak truth, but with a mischievous mind, to hurt another.
CHRISTOPHER CARTWRIGHT (1602-1658): If that which he speaks be true, yet he is void of charity in seeking to defame another. For as Solomon observes, “Love covereth all sins,” Proverbs 10:12. Where there is love and charity, there will be a covering and concealing of men’s sins, as much as may be. Now, where charity is wanting, their salvation is not to be expected.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): If a good name is a treasure, more precious than all the riches of the world, Proverbs 22:1, no greater injury can be inflicted upon men than to wound their reputation.
ADAM CLARKE: “He that utters slander is a fool,” too, Proverbs 10:18; for God will sooner or later bring forth that righteousness as the light which he endeavours to cloud, and will find an expedient to roll the reproach away.
JEREMY TAYLOR (1613-1667): This crime is a conjugation of evils, and is productive of infinite mischief; it undermines peace, and saps the foundation of friendship; it destroys families, and rends in pieces the very heart and vitals of charity; it makes an evil man party, and witness, and judge, and executioner of the innocent.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): It has been well remarked that a talebearer injures three persons: “he injures himself, he injures his hearer, and he injures the subject of his tale.”
JOHN TRAPP: The tale-bearer carrieth the devil in his tongue, and the tale-hearer carries the devil in his ear.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): The receiver of stolen goods is as guilty as the thief. So is it with the one who encourages another to relate scandalous stories. Nothing is more conducive to strife and sorrow among the people of God than the repeating of matters that cannot profit and that bring pain to the one of whom they are related. But there is no surer way to encourage the backbiter than by listening to his tales. If met by an angry countenance and reproved in the fear of God, the malicious gossip might often be nipped in the bud.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Shun the company of talebearers and tattlers; idle gossip is injurious to the soul.
C. H. SPURGEON: There are some brethren with whom it is ill for us to associate, lest they do us hurt, and it is ill for them that we associate with them, lest we seem to assist them in their evil deeds. Especially is this so in the case of mischief makers, troublers, people that can always tell you the gossip of a congregation…Remember how John Bunyan pictures it in Pilgrim’s Progress? When Talkative came up to gossip with Christian and Hopeful, he chattered away upon all sorts of topics and they were wearied with him. To get rid of him, Christian said to Hopeful, “Now we will talk a little about experimental godliness.” And when they began to speak about what they had tasted and handled of Divine Truth, Mr. Chatterbox dropped behind. He did not like spiritual conversation—neither do any of the breed! The holy pilgrims were not so rude as to tell him to go—they only talked about heavenly things which he did not understand—and he went away of his own accord!
H. A. IRONSIDE: Jesus says, “Whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops,” Luke 12:3. If we would keep that in mind I think it would stop a great deal of gossip. If we realized that everything we whisper about another person, every unkind criticism and evil story which we spread abroad concerning others will at last be made known to them and to everyone else, would it not have a tendency to make us very much more careful as to the use of our tongues? It is all coming out some day for, “Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment,” Matthew 12:36.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: This is a most seasonable admonition for the people of God, in every age. A talebearer is sure to do incalculable mischief…Let us carefully guard against this horrible evil. May we never suffer a tale to, pass our lips; and let us never stand to hearken to a talebearer.
GEORGE DOWNAME: The citizen of heaven doth, and ought to abhor backbiting.
C. H. SPURGEON: Beware of a woman who says she “hates gossip.’” She is pretty sure to be up to her neck in it.
