"Do not accuse anyone falsely.

"Do not spread false rumors, and do not help a guilty person by giving false testimony.

Do not spread lies about anyone, and when someone is on trial for his life, speak out if your testimony can help him. I am the LORD.

Get a couple of scoundrels to accuse him to his face of cursing God and the king. Then take him out of the city and stone him to death."

They proclaimed a day of fasting, called the people together, and gave Naboth the place of honor.

You are ready to accuse your own relatives and to find fault with them.

I will get rid of anyone who whispers evil things about someone else; I will not tolerate anyone who is proud and arrogant.

Anyone who hides hatred is a liar. Anyone who spreads gossip is a fool.

Gossip is so tasty---how we love to swallow it!

Gossip is so tasty! How we love to swallow it!

They are all stubborn rebels, hard as bronze and iron. They are all corrupt, going around and spreading gossip.

Everyone must be on guard against their friends, and no one can trust their relatives; for all relatives are as deceitful as Jacob, and everyone slanders their friends.

But when I reached the Benjamin Gate, the officer in charge of the soldiers on duty there, a man by the name of Irijah, the son of Shelemiah and grandson of Hananiah, stopped me and said, "You are deserting to the Babylonians!"

They were furious with me and had me beaten and locked up in the house of Jonathan, the court secretary, whose house had been made into a prison.

Then the officials went to the king and said, "This man must be put to death. By talking like this he is making the soldiers in the city lose their courage, and he is doing the same thing to everyone else left in the city. He is not trying to help the people; he only wants to hurt them."

So they took me and let me down by ropes into Prince Malchiah's well, which was in the palace courtyard. There was no water in the well, only mud, and I sank down in it.

The chief priests and the whole Council tried to find some false evidence against Jesus to put him to death;

So they bribed some men to say, "We heard him speaking against Moses and against God!"

Then they brought in some men to tell lies about him. "This man," they said, "is always talking against our sacred Temple and the Law of Moses.

We found this man to be a dangerous nuisance; he starts riots among Jews all over the world and is a leader of the party of the Nazarenes.

Nor can they give you proof of the accusations they now bring against me.

The huge dragon was thrown out---that ancient serpent, named the Devil, or Satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his angels with him.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now God's salvation has come! Now God has shown his power as King! Now his Messiah has shown his authority! For the one who stood before our God and accused believers day and night has been thrown out of heaven.

He doesn't worship the idols of the Israelites or eat the sacrifices offered at forbidden shrines. He doesn't seduce another man's wife or have intercourse with a woman during her period.

that the father never did. He eats sacrifices offered at forbidden shrines and seduces other men's wives.

He doesn't worship the idols of the Israelites or eat the sacrifices offered at forbidden shrines. He doesn't seduce another man's wife

Then at Peor, God's people joined in the worship of Baal and ate sacrifices offered to dead gods.

Consider the people of Israel; those who eat what is offered in sacrifice share in the altar's service to God.

No! What I am saying is that what is sacrificed on pagan altars is offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be partners with demons.

You have forgotten how I treated you when you were young, and you have made me angry by all the things you did. That is why I have made you pay for them all. Why did you add sexual immorality to all the other disgusting things you did?" The Sovereign LORD has spoken.

Jerusalem, your immoral actions have defiled you. Although I tried to purify you, you remained defiled. You will not be pure again until you have felt the full force of my anger.

I took her body, cut it in pieces, and sent one piece to each of the twelve tribes of Israel. These people have committed an evil and immoral act among us.

They make promises and break them; they lie, murder, steal, and commit adultery. Crimes increase, and there is one murder after another.

You will eat your share of the sacrifices, but still be hungry. You will worship the fertility gods, but still have no children, because you have turned away from me to follow other gods."

Yet I will not punish them for this, because you yourselves go off with temple prostitutes, and together with them you offer pagan sacrifices. As the proverb says, 'A people without sense will be ruined.'

The priests are like a gang of robbers who wait in ambush for someone. Even on the road to the holy place at Shechem they commit murder. And they do all this evil deliberately!

They are all treacherous and disloyal. Their hatred smolders like the fire in an oven, which is not stirred by the baker until the dough is ready to bake.