11:13

Notice the parallel parts that contrast in meaning:

13a
A gossip reveals a secret,

13b but a trustworthy person keeps a confidence.

11:13a

A gossip reveals a secret: The Hebrew phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates here as gossip is literally “⌊one who⌋ goes about ⌊as⌋ a slanderer.” This term is probably used as an idiom for committing slander. A “slanderer” is someone who deliberately intends to harm someone or cause trouble by what he says. So you should use a term in your language that indicates slander or malicious gossip, not just idle talk.

reveals a secret: In Hebrew, this phrase is literally “uncovers an intimacy” (see 3:32b, where the Berean Standard Bible translates “intimacy” as “is a friend”). In this context, “intimacy” refers to a secret or a conversation between friends that should not be shared with others.

Some other ways to translate this line are:

The one who goes about slandering others reveals secrets (NET Bible)
-or-
Gossips can’t keep secrets (New Century Version)
-or-
No one who gossips can be trusted with a secret (Good News Translation)

General Comment on 11:13a–b

In some languages, it may be more natural to reorder these two parallel lines. For example:

13b You can rely on a trustworthy person to keep a secret,

13a but a person who slanders others goes around making everything known.

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.