The Sins of a Backbiter

A backbiter is a person with back trouble—not his own, but someone else’s. He is a pain in another person’s back. The word “backbite,” according to Webster, means “to say mean or spiteful things about (one absent): slander.” The word in the Hebrew from which backbite comes suggests the idea of “to play the spy.” That is, the backbiter attempts to spy out the faults and defects of another person’s life or to circulate reports unfavorable to others by low and petty remarks as well as those which may be malicious and slanderous. It is conveyed in the New Testament by the word “evil speaking” (James 4:11; 1 Peter 3:16). How is your neighbor’s back today?