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77 Bible Verses about Idle Words

Matthew 12:36 ESV / 157 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 10:19 ESV / 149 helpful votes

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

Matthew 12:36-37 ESV / 144 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.”

James 1:26 ESV / 142 helpful votes

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

2 Timothy 2:16 ESV / 129 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 15:2 ESV / 120 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 118 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.

Ephesians 5:4 ESV / 116 helpful votes

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

Colossians 3:8 ESV / 92 helpful votes

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

Psalm 141:3 ESV / 89 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 21:23 ESV / 81 helpful votes

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

James 3:5-6 ESV / 73 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.

Proverbs 13:3 ESV / 72 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 17:27-28 ESV / 60 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.

Titus 3:9 ESV / 56 helpful votes

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

James 3:6 ESV / 52 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.

Ecclesiastes 5:3 ESV / 47 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 17:28 ESV / 44 helpful votes

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

1 Timothy 5:13 ESV / 41 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.

Proverbs 25:11 ESV / 41 helpful votes

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

Titus 3:2 ESV / 40 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 18:21 ESV / 40 helpful votes

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

Matthew 12:37 ESV / 38 helpful votes

For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

James 3:8 ESV / 32 helpful votes

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

Colossians 4:6 ESV / 28 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 29:20 ESV / 28 helpful votes

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

1 Peter 3:10 ESV / 24 helpful votes

For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;

Matthew 5:37 ESV / 21 helpful votes

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

Ecclesiastes 5:2-3 ESV / 21 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. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words.

Titus 1:10 ESV / 20 helpful votes

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

Luke 19:22 ESV / 20 helpful votes

He said to him, ‘I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant! You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?

Proverbs 17:27 ESV / 20 helpful votes

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

James 1:19 ESV / 19 helpful votes

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

Hebrews 10:26 ESV / 19 helpful votes

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

Colossians 3:25 ESV / 16 helpful votes

For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

1 Corinthians 9:27 ESV / 15 helpful votes

But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Ecclesiastes 5:2 ESV / 13 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.

Matthew 15:11 ESV / 12 helpful votes

It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

Matthew 12:35 ESV / 12 helpful votes

The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.

Proverbs 29:11 ESV / 12 helpful votes

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

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 10 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Psalm 34:13 ESV / 10 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 12:18 ESV / 9 helpful votes

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

Psalm 19:1-14 ESV / 9 helpful votes

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. ...

James 3:8-10 ESV / 8 helpful votes

But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

2 Thessalonians 3:11 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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

John 14:23 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Ecclesiastes 10:14 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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

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?

Proverbs 18:2 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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

Psalm 19:14 ESV / 8 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.

1 Corinthians 14:33 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,

Isaiah 58:8 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

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? ...

Deuteronomy 32:47 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

James 3:1-18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 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! ...

1 Thessalonians 4:1-18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; ...

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.

1 Peter 1:15-16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

James 5:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

James 3:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

James 3:2-12 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 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. ...

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.

1 Timothy 1:6 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

Colossians 3:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV / 4 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; ...

Luke 6:45 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Matthew 15:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

Isaiah 58:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;

Proverbs 15:28 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 15:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 15:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 14:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

Psalm 24:1-10 ESV / 4 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. ...

Deuteronomy 18:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

John 2:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

Isaiah 59:1-21 ESV / 2 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. ...

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