Beware of the Slanderous Report
Robert Wurtz II
And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land (Numbers 14:36)
Even those men who brought up the evil report upon the land died by the plague before the LORD. (Numbers 14:37)
Our text is the familiar account of the ten spies bringing a slanderous report of the land to the people, discouraging them from obeying God and possessing the land He had promised them. My concern in this account is one Hebrew word, dibbah, which is translated as both slander and evil report in these two verses.
It is impossible to overstate the power of a report to manipulate people’s emotions and behavior. When you and I speak, we wield incredible power for good or evil. This is why God warns us about our words and reminds us that we will give an account for every careless word we speak on the day of judgment (Matthew 12:36). He also warns that our words will justify us or our words will condemn us (v. 37). In this article, I want to examine the destructiveness of a dibbah, which is a slanderous evil report.
The Twelve Spies exploring Canaan: A Lesson in Faith and Doubt
Translation Methods
When the King James translators translated the Hebrew and Greek back in 1611, they wanted the English text to sound beautiful and poetic rather than stiff and repetitive. To do this, they used a method called “studied variety.” This means they made a careful, intentional choice to use different English synonyms to translate the same Hebrew or Greek word. While this gave the KJV (AV) an elegant, flowing rhythm, it also meant that the English reader loses that connection if a Greek or Hebrew writer used the same word multiple times to make a point. The other option would have been “verbal identity,” which would have translated the Greek or Hebrew word the same every time.
With this in mind, let’s translate the text again:
And the men, whom Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander (dibbah) upon the land, even those men that did bring up a slander (dibbah) upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.
Dibbah in the Old Testament
The Hebrew word dibbāh is a feminine noun meaning slander, bad report, calumny. It is used of the true but negative report of the ten spies to Canaan (Num 13:32; Num 14:36-37), but it also depicts an accurate report concerning evil things (Gen 37:2). This word describes a report given for an evil purpose, e.g., to defame someone (Pro 10:18), i.e., slander, which will destroy the person who spreads the story as well. It also includes whispering in the sense of spreading slander against someone (Psa 31:13 , Jer 20:10) but also in the sense of repeating an unfortunate truth about people behind their backs (Ezk 36:3). (CWSDNT)
A Bible Scholar friend once recommended a book to me by Princeton Professor Harry Frankfurt, whose shocking title I cannot share here in full: “On B.S.” The author argues that it is the only word in English that captures the notion of a person saying something purely for effect while being completely indifferent to the objective truth, and therefore should become part of normal usage rather than a profanity. Frankfurt’s book came to mind as I studied the psychological impact of the Hebrew word dibbah. How often are we influenced by people we trust, not knowing they are telling us information not because they believe it, but because it will achieve their aims, which is to manipulate our emotions or decision-making?
Motivation versus Truth
The biblical usage demonstrates that dibbah (an evil report) is driven by motivation and desired effect rather than factual accuracy; it is weaponized speech designed to manipulate the listener’s emotions, breed fear, and sway their opinion towards the slanderer’s evil aims. The speaker appears unconcerned about whether their statements will pass muster at the great judgment or whether God will judge them for saying them. They do not fix their mind on eternity; they focus on the temporal. If they cared about truth, they would have put all the facts on the table for discussion rather than presenting a caustic, synthesized version of worst-case scenarios.
In Numbers 13, the ten spies bring back a dibbah about the Promised Land. They didn’t necessarily care if their terrifying claim that “we are like grasshoppers to them” was factually sound—they wanted the negative effect of paralyzing the people with fear and doubt. In modern times, there are countless ways to draw attention to the “what if’s” in ministry, discouraging people from stepping out in faith.
Moses expressed the ten spies’ evil manipulation in Deuteronomy 1:28, “Our brothers have made our hearts melt…” Their slander melted (which is the Hebrew word masah, meaning to dissolve or liquify) the people’s hearts and caused them to murmur against God. Before it was over, they were plotting to go back to Egypt after all God had done to deliver them (Numbers 14:4).
The Concept of Tactical Impact
In modern times, the Hebrew word dibbah relates to the concept of “tactical impact,” in which a person’s decision-making and threat response are influenced by fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD). When someone uses words purely for their tactical impact, their only concern is: “What will saying this accomplish for me?” Instead of asking, “Is this true?” they are asking: “Will saying this make the listener angry enough or scared enough to take my side? Will this rumor scare them enough to change their mind? Will this make my opponent look so bad that I win the argument?”
The information might be true, but out of context. The ten spies could make a case that what they said was true, but they completely disregarded the full context of their situation in the people’s ears and steered them toward the negative to accomplish their goal. Politicians do this type of thing all the time. The world uses these strategies to get its way. Salesman do it to gain sales over their competition. However, it is an abomination among the people of God. We should endeavor to lay all relevant facts on the table for consideration and not display the evidence so as to control the outcome. Otherwise you end up with a manufactured response.
Truth in the Inward Parts
A secular songwriter once lamented that, “Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue.” The Psalmist recognized a great truth after repenting from his backsliding when he wrote that God desires truth in the inward parts (Psalm 51:6). That’s where it has to begin. You have to be conscientious about your words and behaviors. No more half-truths, out of context information, manipulating and lying, or treating words and information like a tool—or a weapon—to force a specific reaction in the moment, completely ignoring whether the statement is actually true.
Repentance in Order
Whoever hides hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander (dibbah) is a fool. (Proverbs 10:18)
Proverbs warns us not to spread a dibbah. Solomon says that anyone who spreads a dibbah is behaving foolishly. In the LXX, Proverbs 10:18 has the Greek word aphron translated as “fool” or “foolish”. In Luke 12:20, Jesus calls the rich, successful farmer a fool, áphrōn, because he mistook success for having all he could get, without regard for others or for what his own destiny would be after death. (CWSDNT) This is the kind of person who spreads a dibbah—someone so short-sighted and self-absorbed that, like the rich man building bigger barns, they act without any awareness that their own judgment could come this very night.
In the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the prophets lament that this exact kind of speech defines a culture completely lacking in repentance. Jeremiah famously cries out that his enemies are whispering a dibbah against him (Jeremiah 20:9-11), conspiring to twist his words to destroy him. “Desiring nothing more than that he might be enticed to speak or do something which they might make matter of a colorable accusation.” (John Wesley)
Love for Truth and Our Fellow Man
Fear is a powerful motivation, and when the ten spies terrified the people into following their will, it demonstrated not just a lack of faith but a lack of love. Their actions led over a million people into ruin and God’s judgment. Ten men unified to challenge God’s will. Why? Did it start with one man, and his doubt and fear spread to the rest of the nine? We will never know this side of eternity. What we do know is that measures were in place to prevent it from happening again. “What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart.” (Deuteronomy 20:8, KJV)
In the final analysis, the Bible uses the term to show that prioritizing a statement’s negative effect over its objective truth is a total rejection of God’s character. It aligns with Jesus words in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
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Excellent article! Very educational. Always good to challenge our thinking. In word and deed we should always endeavor to be truthful instead of prioritizing a statement’s negative effect over its objective truth.
A report given for an evil purpose is not of God and as Christians we should always be watchful and stick to the truth. But even more disturbing than that is when people promote something evil, thinking they are pursuing truth. Throughout the history of Christianity this has been one of the greatest dangers facing the church, plunging many countries into darkness for centuries, even resulting in Christians who spoke out against it being labeled as evil. History has a way of repeating itself. We have to be watchful about that too. See Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”