Proverbs Chapter 18 verse 8 Holy Bible
The words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels, And they go down into the innermost parts.
read chapter 18 in ASV
The words of one who says evil of his neighbour secretly are like sweet food, and go down into the inner parts of the stomach.
read chapter 18 in BBE
The words of a talebearer are as dainty morsels, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
read chapter 18 in DARBY
The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
read chapter 18 in KJV
read chapter 18 in WBT
The words of a gossip are like dainty morsels: They go down into a person's innermost parts.
read chapter 18 in WEB
The words of a tale-bearer `are' as self-inflicted wounds, And they have gone down `to' the inner parts of the heart.
read chapter 18 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 8. - The words of a tale bearer are as wounds. Nergan, "tale bearer," is better rendered "whisperer" (see on Proverbs 16:28). The Authorized Version reminds one of the mediaeval jingle - "Lingua susurronisEst pejor felle draconis." The verse recurs in Proverbs 26:22; but the word rendered "wounds" (mitlahamim) is to be differently explained. It is probably the hithp. participle of laham," to swallow," and seems to mean "dainty morsels," such as one eagerly swallows. Thus Gesenius, Schultens, Delitzsch, Nowack, and others. So the clause means, "A whisperer's words are received with avidity; calumny, slander, and evil stories find eager listeners." The same metaphor is found in Proverbs 19:28; Job 34:7. There may, at the same time, be involved the idea that these dainty morsels are of poisonous character. Vulgate, Verba bilinguis, quasi simplicia, "The words of a man of double tongue seem to be simple," which contains another truth. They go down into the innermost parts of the belly (Proverbs 20:27, 30). The hearers take in the slanders and treasure them up in memory, to be used as occasion shall offer. The LXX. omits this verse, and in its place introduces a paragraph founded partly on the next verse and partly on Proverbs 19:15. The Vulgate also inserts the interpolation, "Fear overthrows the sluggish; and the souls of the effeminate (ἀνδρογύνων) shall hunger."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(8) The words of a talebearer are as wounds.--Or, more probably, "as dainty morsels" that are eagerly swallowed, and "go down into the innermost parts of the belly," i.e., are treasured up in the deepest recesses of the heart, to be remembered and brought out again when an opportunity for employing them occurs.