lest the one who hears it put you to shame and your infamy ¹  will never go away.

The one who conceals hatred utters lies, ¹  and the one who spreads ²  slander ³  is certainly ⁴  a fool.

those men who produced the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord.

The men whom Moses sent to investigate the land, who returned and made the whole community murmur against him by producing ¹  an evil report about the land,

For I hear what so many are saying, ¹  the terrifying news that comes from every direction. ²  When they plot together against me, they figure out how they can take my life.

This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, ¹  was taking care of ²  the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster ³  working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. ⁴  Joseph brought back a bad report about them ⁵  to their father.

Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging ¹  report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through ²  to investigate is a land that devours ³  its inhabitants. ⁴  All the people we saw there ⁵  are of great stature.

I ¹  hear many whispering words of intrigue against me. Those who would cause me terror are everywhere! ²  They are saying, “Come on, let’s publicly denounce him!” ³  All my so-called friends ⁴  are just watching for something that would lead to my downfall. ⁵  They say, “Perhaps he can be enticed into slipping up, so we can prevail over ⁶  him and get our revenge on him.

So prophesy and say: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Surely because they have made you desolate and crushed you from all directions, so that you have become the property of the rest of the nations, and have become the subject of gossip ¹  and slander among the people,