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87 Bible Verses about Harmful Speech

Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 6 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 18:21 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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

James 3:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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.

James 1:26 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

James 1:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

James 1:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Colossians 4:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Colossians 3:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 5:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

Romans 14:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

Romans 3:13-14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

Matthew 12:36-37 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Matthew 12:34 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Daniel 4:1-37 ESV / 3 helpful votes

King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me. ...

Ecclesiastes 5:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.

Proverbs 25:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 21:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 20:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 13:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 12:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Proverbs 11:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Psalm 19:14 ESV / 3 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.

Revelation 21:8 ESV / 2 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.”

1 John 5:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

James 5:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.

James 4:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

James 3:5 ESV / 2 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!

Titus 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Titus 2:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

1 Timothy 6:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

1 Timothy 4:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

1 Thessalonians 5:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.

Philippians 4:8 ESV / 2 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.

Philippians 2:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do all things without grumbling or disputing,

Ephesians 5:3-4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

Galatians 5:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 1:1-24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. ...

2 Corinthians 5:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV / 2 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; ...

1 Corinthians 13:1 ESV / 2 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.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Romans 5:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 1:30 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

Romans 1:28-32 ESV / 2 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.

John 16:26 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf;

John 15:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 7:1-53 ESV / 2 helpful votes

After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For not even his brothers believed in him. ...

John 3:16-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Luke 16:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

Matthew 6:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Matthew 5:43-44 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Jonah 3:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

Hosea 1:1-11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.” ...

Daniel 3:1-30 ESV / 2 helpful votes

King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. ...

Daniel 1:1-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. ...

Ezekiel 16:1-63 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Again the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born. ...

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Ecclesiastes 9:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools.

Ecclesiastes 9:1-18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. ...

Ecclesiastes 7:1-29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. ...

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ...

Proverbs 29:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Proverbs 25:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.

Proverbs 18:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 17:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.

Proverbs 16:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 16:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 14:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.

Proverbs 14:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.

Proverbs 12:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

A man is commended according to his good sense, but one of twisted mind is despised.

Proverbs 10:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 7:1-27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words. ...

Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV / 2 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.

Psalm 101:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.

Psalm 57:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.

Psalm 52:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.

Psalm 5:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.

Deuteronomy 32:35 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’

Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Leviticus 27:30 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord's; it is holy to the Lord.

Leviticus 20:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Leviticus 19:16 ESV / 2 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.

Leviticus 18:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

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