You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.

Read in Logos

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

But let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more than this is from the evil one.

NLTNew Living Translation

Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

But let your statement be ‘Yes, yes; no, no,’ and anything beyond these is from the evil one.

KJV 1900King James Version

But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Public Domain