The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
The words of a talebearer are wounds that sink inward and cut deeply into the innermost life. To speak unkindly about others and to listen with pleasure to reports that blacken their character are both cruel deeds, and the one who listens with delight shares the guilt of the one who spreads the report. Evil-speaking is a double curse, injuring the hearer while falling with still greater weight upon the speaker. The speaker reaps the deadly fruit of sowing dissension and strife, and is left miserable and unhappy. Such speech stains and weakens the church, and therefore its members are to rebuke it rather than permit it to go on.
The words of a talebearer are wounds that sink inward and cut deeply into the innermost life. To speak unkindly about others and to listen with pleasure to reports that blacken their character are both cruel deeds, and the one who listens with delight shares the guilt of the one who spreads the report. Evil-speaking is a double curse, injuring the hearer while falling with still greater weight upon the speaker. The speaker reaps the deadly fruit of sowing dissension and strife, and is left miserable and unhappy. Such speech stains and weakens the church, and therefore its members are to rebuke it rather than permit it to go on.