2 Samuel 16:3

⁹Then the king called to Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, “All that belonged to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master’s son. ¹⁰Till the land for him—you, your sons, and your servants. Bring in the harvest, that your master’s son may have bread to eat; but Mephibosheth your master’s son will always eat bread at my table.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.

⁵I will silence whoever secretly slanders his neighbor. I won’t tolerate one who is arrogant and conceited.

²⁸A false witness will perish. A man who listens speaks to eternity.

¹⁹So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.

¹⁸You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.

²⁴Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither groomed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace. ²⁵When he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, “Why didn’t you go with me, Mephibosheth?”

²⁶He answered, “My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said, ‘I will saddle a donkey for myself, that I may ride on it and go with the king,’ because your servant is lame. ²⁷He has slandered your servant to my lord the king, but my lord the king is as an angel of God. Therefore do what is good in your eyes. ²⁸For all my father’s house were but dead men before my lord the king; yet you set your servant among those who ate at your own table. What right therefore have I yet that I should appeal any more to the king?”

²⁹The king said to him, “Why do you speak any more of your matters? I say, you and Ziba divide the land.”

³⁰Mephibosheth said to the king, “Yes, let him take all, because my lord the king has come in peace to his own house.”

¹¹Woe to them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in Korah’s rebellion.

⁵Don’t trust in a neighbor. Don’t put confidence in a friend. With the woman lying in your embrace, be careful of the words of your mouth!

³he who doesn’t slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his friend, nor casts slurs against his fellow man;

¹⁶“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.