100 Bible Verses about Gossip And Lies

Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 1,272 helpful votes

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV / 1,071 helpful votes

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Proverbs 16:28 ESV / 943 helpful votes

A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.

Proverbs 21:23 ESV / 808 helpful votes

Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.

James 1:26 ESV / 785 helpful votes

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

Proverbs 20:19 ESV / 736 helpful votes

Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.

Matthew 12:36 ESV / 571 helpful votes

I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,

Psalm 101:5 ESV / 526 helpful votes

Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure.

Psalm 34:13 ESV / 509 helpful votes

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Titus 3:2 ESV / 473 helpful votes

To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

Proverbs 18:8 ESV / 463 helpful votes

The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.

Proverbs 26:20 ESV / 445 helpful votes

For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.

Proverbs 11:13 ESV / 434 helpful votes

Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.

Proverbs 17:4 ESV / 421 helpful votes

An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.

James 4:11 ESV / 407 helpful votes

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

Leviticus 19:16 ESV / 399 helpful votes

You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

1 Timothy 5:13 ESV / 384 helpful votes

Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.

Exodus 23:1 ESV / 376 helpful votes

“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness.

Romans 1:29 ESV / 353 helpful votes

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,

Proverbs 10:18 ESV / 333 helpful votes

The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever utters slander is a fool.

Proverbs 17:9 ESV / 298 helpful votes

Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.

2 Timothy 2:16 ESV / 284 helpful votes

But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,

Proverbs 19:5 ESV / 278 helpful votes

A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape.

Exodus 20:16 ESV / 266 helpful votes

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Philippians 4:8 ESV / 244 helpful votes

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

2 Corinthians 12:20 ESV / 206 helpful votes

For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.

James 3:8 ESV / 196 helpful votes

But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

Psalm 64:2-4 ESV / 192 helpful votes

Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers, who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows, shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear.

1 Thessalonians 4:11 ESV / 176 helpful votes

And to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,

Ephesians 4:31 ESV / 164 helpful votes

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

Proverbs 10:19 ESV / 152 helpful votes

When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.

Proverbs 26:22 ESV / 150 helpful votes

The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV / 130 helpful votes

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ...

Proverbs 11:9 ESV / 118 helpful votes

With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered.

Psalm 91:1-16 ESV / 112 helpful votes

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, ...

1 Peter 4:15 ESV / 109 helpful votes

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.

Proverbs 18:21 ESV / 100 helpful votes

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Proverbs 12:22 ESV / 98 helpful votes

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

Psalm 141:3 ESV / 97 helpful votes

Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!

Psalm 19:14 ESV / 97 helpful votes

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Matthew 7:1-29 ESV / 96 helpful votes

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. ...

Proverbs 19:9 ESV / 96 helpful votes

A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.

Ephesians 4:15-16 ESV / 91 helpful votes

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Proverbs 25:23 ESV / 90 helpful votes

The north wind brings forth rain, and a backbiting tongue, angry looks.

Psalm 31:18 ESV / 85 helpful votes

Let the lying lips be mute, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt.

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 85 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

Proverbs 26:20-22 ESV / 82 helpful votes

For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife. The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.

Isaiah 1:1-31 ESV / 80 helpful votes

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. ...

Proverbs 13:3 ESV / 80 helpful votes

Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.

John 8:44 ESV / 79 helpful votes

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Titus 2:2-3 ESV / 77 helpful votes

Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,

Romans 1:29-32 ESV / 77 helpful votes

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Psalm 50:19-23 ESV / 77 helpful votes

“You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son. These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. “Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver! The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

Colossians 4:6 ESV / 76 helpful votes

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

James 3:5 ESV / 75 helpful votes

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!

Romans 1:28-32 ESV / 75 helpful votes

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Psalm 1:1-6 ESV / 75 helpful votes

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; ...

Psalm 101:7 ESV / 72 helpful votes

No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes.

John 8:4-10 ESV / 71 helpful votes

They said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. ...

1 Peter 2:1 ESV / 70 helpful votes

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

Proverbs 14:5 ESV / 70 helpful votes

A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies.

1 Peter 3:16 ESV / 68 helpful votes

Having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

1 Timothy 4:2 ESV / 68 helpful votes

Through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,

Matthew 7:1 ESV / 68 helpful votes

“Judge not, that you be not judged.

Matthew 7:12 ESV / 67 helpful votes

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Colossians 3:8 ESV / 66 helpful votes

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

Romans 8:1-39 ESV / 64 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ...

Ephesians 4:25 ESV / 62 helpful votes

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Ephesians 5:11 ESV / 60 helpful votes

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

Nahum 3:1 ESV / 60 helpful votes

Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder— no end to the prey!

Jeremiah 6:28 ESV / 60 helpful votes

They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders; they are bronze and iron; all of them act corruptly.

Proverbs 11:12 ESV / 60 helpful votes

Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.

Matthew 18:17 ESV / 59 helpful votes

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Proverbs 26:28 ESV / 59 helpful votes

A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin.

Proverbs 26:17 ESV / 59 helpful votes

Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears.

Psalm 58:3 ESV / 59 helpful votes

The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

1 Timothy 5:19 ESV / 58 helpful votes

Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

Luke 6:31 ESV / 58 helpful votes

And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Proverbs 30:8 ESV / 58 helpful votes

Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,

Revelation 21:8 ESV / 57 helpful votes

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Matthew 18:1-35 ESV / 57 helpful votes

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, ...

Deuteronomy 13:14 ESV / 57 helpful votes

Then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you,

Zephaniah 3:13 ESV / 54 helpful votes

Those who are left in Israel; they shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.”

Romans 1:29-30 ESV / 53 helpful votes

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

Jeremiah 9:1-11 ESV / 53 helpful votes

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the desert a travelers' lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men. They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares the Lord. Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity. ...

Hosea 10:13 ESV / 52 helpful votes

You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors,

Psalm 15:1-5 ESV / 52 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

Psalm 119:163 ESV / 50 helpful votes

I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law.

Revelation 2:2 ESV / 49 helpful votes

“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

Hosea 7:3 ESV / 46 helpful votes

By their evil they make the king glad, and the princes by their treachery.

Proverbs 29:12 ESV / 46 helpful votes

If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked.

2 Thessalonians 3:11 ESV / 45 helpful votes

For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.

Genesis 3:13 ESV / 45 helpful votes

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Colossians 3:9 ESV / 44 helpful votes

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices

Leviticus 19:11 ESV / 44 helpful votes

“You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another.

Hebrews 6:18 ESV / 42 helpful votes

So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

John 10:10 ESV / 40 helpful votes

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Proverbs 12:5 ESV / 39 helpful votes

The thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.

Hebrews 11:1-40 ESV / 38 helpful votes

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. ...

Psalm 24:1-10 ESV / 38 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. ...

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