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Psalm 50:20
You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son.
18When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers.
19“You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.
20You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son.
21You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.
22“Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.
Notice
The words “your own mother’s son” expose the closeness of the person being slandered, making this charge against speech a charge of family betrayal.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What changes in your reading when “your brother” becomes “your own mother’s son”?
Write on thisWhen you speak about a family member, how do you distinguish known facts from assumptions?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Matthew 10:21“Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.Both passages name harm between brothers, though Matthew describes betrayal leading to death and the psalm confronts slander.
Leviticus 19:16“‘You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people. “‘You shall not endanger the life of your neighbor. I am the LORD.Leviticus forbids slander among God’s people; the psalm confronts someone who directs that forbidden speech against his own brother.
Proverbs 10:18He who hides hatred has lying lips. He who utters a slander is a fool.Both texts condemn slander: Proverbs names the speaker a fool, while the psalm identifies the brother harmed by his words.
Psalm 101:5I will silence whoever secretly slanders his neighbor. I won’t tolerate one who is arrogant and conceited.Both psalms condemn slander against someone close at hand, whether a neighbor or a brother.
Psalm 31:18Let the lying lips be mute, which speak against the righteous insolently, with pride and contempt.Both passages confront harmful, false speech against another person; Psalm 31 asks that lying lips be silenced.
Matthew 5:11“Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake.False speech against another person links these passages; the psalm rebukes the speaker, while Jesus blesses those maligned for his sake.
Revelation 12:10I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of …Both texts speak of accusations against brothers; the psalm confronts a human speaker, while Revelation announces the accuser’s overthrow.
Ezekiel 22:9Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood. In you they have eaten on the mountains. They have committed lewdness among you.Both passages expose slander as wrongdoing; Ezekiel also names bloodshed as the purpose of the slanderous men.
Ephesians 4:31Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander be put away from you, with all malice.The slander God confronts in the psalm is among the forms of speech Ephesians commands its readers to put away.
Luke 22:65They spoke many other things against him, insulting him.Both passages describe speech directed against someone: slander against a brother in the psalm, insults against Jesus in Luke.
1 Timothy 3:11Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things.Both texts reject slander, with the psalm exposing its harm within a family and Timothy requiring speech free from it.
Titus 2:3and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good,Titus requires older women to refrain from slander, the same kind of speech God condemns against a brother in the psalm.
Where this verse fits
Family conflict. guilt and confession.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
If family slander has wounded you, God’s charge names that wrong. The bond of a shared mother does not make such speech acceptable to him.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 50:20. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).