Proverbs 24:28

28 Don't talk about your neighbors behind their backs - no slander or gossip, please.

Proverbs 24:28 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 24:28

Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause
Unless forced unto it, except there is some urgent reason for it; not upon any trivial account, or in any frivolous matter; never appear forward and eager to bear witness against him, and, whenever obliged to it, be not a false witness, but speak truth, whether thy neighbour be a friend or a foe; and deceive [not] with thy lips;
by bearing a false testimony, the judge, thy neighbour and thyself; for though men may be deceived, God cannot: or, shouldest thou do so, "thou wouldest break" and cut him to pieces "with thy lips" ^F24; which is the sense of the words according to R. Judah, as Ben Melech relates.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F24 (Kytpvb tytyphw) "et ne atteras labiis tuis", Vatablus; "et ne comminuas eum labiis tuis", Syriac version.

Proverbs 24:28 In-Context

26 An honest answer is like a warm hug.

27 First plant your fields; then build your barn.

28 Don't talk about your neighbors behind their backs - no slander or gossip, please.

29 Don't say to anyone, "I'll get back at you for what you did to me. I'll make you pay for what you did!"

30 One day I walked by the field of an old lazybones, and then passed the vineyard of a lout;