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100 Bible Verses about Idle Talk

Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 266 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.

Matthew 12:36 ESV / 259 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 5:4 ESV / 226 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 10:19 ESV / 191 helpful votes

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

1 Timothy 5:13 ESV / 173 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.

2 Timothy 2:16 ESV / 154 helpful votes

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

James 1:26 ESV / 140 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 15:2 ESV / 135 helpful votes

The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

2 Timothy 2:14-16 ESV / 110 helpful votes

Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,

Titus 1:10 ESV / 105 helpful votes

For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

Proverbs 20:19 ESV / 96 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 17:28 ESV / 78 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 15:28 ESV / 75 helpful votes

The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.

James 3:5-6 ESV / 74 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! 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.

Ecclesiastes 5:3 ESV / 74 helpful votes

For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words.

Proverbs 16:28 ESV / 73 helpful votes

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

1 Timothy 6:20 ESV / 62 helpful votes

O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,”

Psalm 141:3 ESV / 62 helpful votes

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

Titus 1:15 ESV / 59 helpful votes

To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

Proverbs 15:4 ESV / 59 helpful votes

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Matthew 12:36-37 ESV / 57 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.”

Titus 3:9 ESV / 52 helpful votes

But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

Proverbs 14:23 ESV / 51 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 10:8-10 ESV / 50 helpful votes

The wise of heart will receive commandments, but a babbling fool will come to ruin. Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out. Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, and a babbling fool will come to ruin.

1 Peter 4:15 ESV / 45 helpful votes

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

James 3:6 ESV / 45 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.

Exodus 20:16 ESV / 43 helpful votes

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Proverbs 18:21 ESV / 41 helpful votes

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

Matthew 5:37 ESV / 38 helpful votes

Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Romans 1:29 ESV / 36 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 21:23 ESV / 36 helpful votes

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

Matthew 6:1-34 ESV / 31 helpful votes

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ...

Matthew 5:43-48 ESV / 31 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, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ...

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

2 Corinthians 12:20 ESV / 27 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.

Proverbs 18:8 ESV / 27 helpful votes

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

Ecclesiastes 10:14 ESV / 24 helpful votes

A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him?

Proverbs 25:11 ESV / 24 helpful votes

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

Proverbs 17:27 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

Proverbs 18:2 ESV / 23 helpful votes

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

James 1:26-27 ESV / 22 helpful votes

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Proverbs 13:3 ESV / 21 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 12:23 ESV / 21 helpful votes

A prudent man conceals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims folly.

Proverbs 12:18 ESV / 21 helpful votes

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

Matthew 7:12 ESV / 19 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 31:9-10 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.

Proverbs 17:27-28 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.

Psalm 37:4 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

3 John 1:10 ESV / 16 helpful votes

So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

1 Timothy 1:6 ESV / 16 helpful votes

Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion,

Proverbs 6:12-14 ESV / 16 helpful votes

A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord;

James 1:1-27 ESV / 15 helpful votes

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ...

Job 11:3 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Should your babble silence men, and when you mock, shall no one shame you?

1 John 4:1 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

1 John 2:1-29 ESV / 14 helpful votes

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ...

James 3:1 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

Proverbs 26:20 ESV / 14 helpful votes

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

Isaiah 59:1-21 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. ...

Ecclesiastes 5:7 ESV / 13 helpful votes

For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.

Ephesians 2:8 ESV / 12 helpful votes

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

John 3:1-36 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ...

Proverbs 25:23 ESV / 12 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 12:11 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.

1 Timothy 4:12 ESV / 11 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.

Romans 12:3 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

2 Samuel 11:1-27 ESV / 9 helpful votes

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.” ...

James 3:5 ESV / 8 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 2:8 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Ecclesiastes 10:12-14 ESV / 8 helpful votes

The words of a wise man's mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness. A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him?

Matthew 12:34 ESV / 7 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.

Isaiah 58:1-14 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? ...

1 Samuel 16:23 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.

Deuteronomy 29:1-29 ESV / 7 helpful votes

These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb. And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. ...

1 John 3:1 ESV / 6 helpful votes

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

James 1:19 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 15:33 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

Proverbs 11:13 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 11:9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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

Deuteronomy 29:9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.

1 Timothy 4:7 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;

2 Thessalonians 3:11 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 5:3-4 ESV / 5 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.

Romans 1:29-32 ESV / 5 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.

Proverbs 19:15 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.

Proverbs 16:27 ESV / 5 helpful votes

A worthless man plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.

Psalm 83:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

That they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.

Exodus 20:1-26 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, ...

Revelation 13:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

1 Peter 4:11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

James 4:11 ESV / 4 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.

Titus 1:10-11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

Colossians 4:6 ESV / 4 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 / 4 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Acts 17:10-11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Matthew 12:31-37 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. ...

Ezekiel 14:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?

Proverbs 29:11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.

Proverbs 12:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous escapes from trouble.

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