Tale-bearing, _i. e._ tattling, retailing scandal maliciously or for a past-time, needed the force of law to abate and suppress it in those times as in most other ages. “Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people, neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor. I am the Lord” (Lev. 19: 16–18)――“Standing against the blood,” must mean――taking ground against the very life, and must not be construed to forbid truthful testimony against the real murderer. But the informer should constantly remember that his neighbor’s interests and life are too precious to be lightly tampered with. Thy neighbor may have said or done something wrong. Your duty in the case is not to scatter broadcast all you know and more than you know of his misdeeds; but first of all――“Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart,” but “love him as thyself” (v. 18); and next, “Thou shalt in anywise [by all means] rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.”――――This last clause has been understood in two ways:――(a) Thou shalt not suffer the sin to lie upon him with no effort on thy part to bring him to repentance: or (b) Thou shalt not bear on thine own conscience the sin of neglecting to admonish him; _i. e._ thou shalt not submit to bear this sin on his account――a sin which comes of knowing his crime and of failing in your duty to save him by means of judicious and fraternal rebuke. The latter construction is best sustained by Hebrew usage of the words. See the same words, Lev. 22: 9 and Num. 18: 32, and the preposition “_upon_ him,” in Ps. 69: 8――“_For thy sake_ have I borne,” etc. The verb in this clause means rather to “_bear_” in your own person, than to “suffer” to exist in another.――――The passage, so interpreted, assumes it to be your solemn duty to labor to bring your neighbor to repentance if you are cognizant of his wrong-doing, and implies that you must lie under a load of sin if you fail to do so. But do it _in love_ (loving him even as yourself) as well as in all fidelity to his soul, as also to your own. Do this instead of going up and down to scatter this scandal among those who will do nothing to save your erring neighbor, and nothing to relieve your conscience of your responsibility in his behalf. While this statute bears against giving information about misdeeds of minor sort, there were two crimes of such magnitude that every man was bound to testify in the proper form against them; viz. idolatry and murder. See the case of idolatry in Deut. 13: 6–14: “Neither shalt thou conceal him, but thou shalt surely kill him: thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward, the hand of all the people.” (Also v. 14)――――The expiation for murder by an unknown hand included this most solemn protestation: “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.” Of course, whoever might have seen was most sacredly bound to testify. CHAPTER XVIII.