Ecclesiasticus 19:5-16 — Sirach 19:5-16

He who glotes over evil will meet with evil, and he who repeats an evil report has no sense. Never repeat gossip, and you will not be reviled. Tell nothing to friend or foe; if you have a fault, reveal it not, For he who hears it will hold it against you, and in time become your enemy. Let anything you hear die within you; be assured it will not make you burst. When a fool hears something, he is in labor, like a woman giving birth to a child. Like an arrow lodged in a man’s thigh is gossip in the breast of a fool. Admonish your friend — he may not have done it; and if he did, that he may not do it again. Admonish your neighbor — he may not have said it; and if he did, that he may not say it again. Admonish your friend — often it may be slander; every story you must not believe. Then, too, a man can slip and not mean it; who has not sinned with his tongue? Admonish your neighbor before you break with him; thus will you fulfill the law of the Most High. Amen.