Job 15:5
New Living Translation
5 Your sins are telling your mouth what to say.
Your words are based on clever deception.
James 3:5-8
New Living Translation
5 In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.
But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. 6 And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.[a]
7 People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 3:6 Or for it will burn in hell (Greek Gehenna).
Jeremiah 9:8
New Living Translation
8 For their tongues shoot lies like poisoned arrows.
They speak friendly words to their neighbors
while scheming in their heart to kill them.
Jeremiah 9:3-5
New Living Translation
Judgment for Disobedience
3 “My people bend their tongues like bows
to shoot out lies.
They refuse to stand up for the truth.
They only go from bad to worse.
They do not know me,”
says the Lord.
4 “Beware of your neighbor!
Don’t even trust your brother!
For brother takes advantage of brother,
and friend slanders friend.
5 They all fool and defraud each other;
no one tells the truth.
With practiced tongues they tell lies;
they wear themselves out with all their sinning.
Psalm 52:2-4
New Living Translation
2 All day long you plot destruction.
Your tongue cuts like a sharp razor;
you’re an expert at telling lies.
3 You love evil more than good
and lies more than truth. Interlude
4 You love to destroy others with your words,
you liar!
Psalm 50:19-20
New Living Translation
19 Your mouth is filled with wickedness,
and your tongue is full of lies.
20 You sit around and slander your brother—
your own mother’s son.
James 1:26
New Living Translation
26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.
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Luke 6:45
New Living Translation
45 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.
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Psalm 120:2-3
New Living Translation
2 Rescue me, O Lord, from liars
and from all deceitful people.
3 O deceptive tongue, what will God do to you?
How will he increase your punishment?
Psalm 64:3
New Living Translation
3 They sharpen their tongues like swords
and aim their bitter words like arrows.
Job 9:22-24
New Living Translation
22 Innocent or wicked, it is all the same to God.
That’s why I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
23 When a plague[a] sweeps through,
he laughs at the death of the innocent.
24 The whole earth is in the hands of the wicked,
and God blinds the eyes of the judges.
If he’s not the one who does it, who is?
Footnotes
- 9:23 Or disaster.
Job 5:13
New Living Translation
13 He traps the wise in their own cleverness
so their cunning schemes are thwarted.
Mark 7:21-22
New Living Translation
21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.
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Job 12:6
New Living Translation
6 But robbers are left in peace,
and those who provoke God live in safety—
though God keeps them in his power.[a]
Footnotes
- 12:6 Or safety—those who try to manipulate God. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.