(Prov. 20:19 NAU).
How could you possibly argue that you associate with James Patrick Holding, but you don't associate with a gossip?
Maybe you think the "gossip" condemned here is something different than James Patrick Holding's obsessive need to dig up personal strifes and evils in the lives of his critics? Break out the chocolate, you are about to have a bad day. Evangelical Christian scholar R.E. Murphy:
19 The first line is very similar to 11:3a. The slanderer is one who goes about talking, although the etymology of the word רכיל is difficult. Naturally, such a person is to be avoided. The parallel with the “open mouthed” (see Note 19.a.*) would seem to indicate a character that we would term “loose-lipped.”The dictionary defines "loose-lipped" as "fond of gossip". If you think Mr. Holding only yaks about issues of biblical scholarship, you might ask him
* 19.a. This verb seems to have two meanings: “open” and “simple/foolish.” In either case, irresponsible speech is meant.Murphy, R. E. (2002). Vol. 22: Proverbs.Word Biblical Commentary (Page 152)
a) why he is being sued for defamation for the third time, and
b) why his lawyer has told him he won't be escaping this third one with a Phariseeic technicality, like he did the last two times, but must answer to a jury on the merits
Or maybe you are a clever person, you caught the gag, and you won't be asking Holding any such thing, because to do so is to perhaps reveal that you love hearing gossip, which makes you just as bad as the person who spreads gossip, see Proverbs 17:4.
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