# Biblical trash talking
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 22, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404 "2025-08-22T20:43:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/1 "2025-08-22T20:43:36Z")
In the Biblical story of Lot and his daughters, they end up out in the wilderness alone. The daughters want to have kids, but the only man around is daddy. So they get their father drunk and lay with him. The offspring are two boys, Ammon and Moab, who are the progenitors of the Ammonites and Moabites, who are neighbors of the Hebrews (their lands are to the east of the Jordan River and Dead Sea). They were frequently at odds with the Hebrews/Israelites. So the story is basically Biblical trash talking: Yo momma had sex with her daddy.
Arer there any other instances of trash talking in the Bible?
---
### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/2 "2025-08-22T20:47:36Z")
One of my favorites, which my college church group appropriated as a nickname for bad drivers, is from [2 Kings 9:20](https://biblehub.com/2_kings/9-20.htm):
> [@](#):
>
> The lookout reported, “He has reached them, but he isn’t coming back either. The driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi—he drives like a maniac.”
Basically: “that guy’s nuts/reckless.”
---
### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/3 "2025-08-22T21:11:49Z")
> \*\*[45](https://biblehub.com/john/1-45.htm)\*\*Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. \*\*[46](https://biblehub.com/john/1-46.htm)\*\*And Nathanael said unto him, **Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?**
Snap!
---
### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/4 "2025-08-22T21:15:00Z")
Also from 2 Kings: Elisha gets revenge on some trash-talkers in the most badass way possible.
> And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, **Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.**
>
> And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.
---
### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/5 "2025-08-22T21:28:25Z")
How fat was Elgon, king of Moab? (Judges 3:12-25) He was so fat that when he was assassinated “the king’s fat covered the whole sword.”
---
### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/6 "2025-08-22T21:28:58Z")
Yo mother…
2 Kings 9:22:
_And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?_
---
### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/7 "2025-08-22T21:34:13Z")
Dayam!
---
### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/8 "2025-08-22T21:38:16Z")
Apparently, Jehu was a piece of work. 😃
---
### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/9 "2025-08-22T22:26:31Z")
Check out Ezekiel 23:20. NSFW.
---
### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/10 "2025-08-22T23:30:12Z")
There are all kinds of taunts, such as the Assyrian commander telling the inhabitants of Jerusalem that they would soon have to eat their own feces and urine once the siege went on for long enough.
---
### Author:  [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2025, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/11 "2025-08-23T00:15:31Z")
1 Kings 18. Elijah, alone, challenges the many priests of Baal to a God battle. They prepare an offering, and see if Baal will accept it; he will do the same. On his turn, he has the offering watered down with barrels full of water, and God still accepts the offering, roasting it with a bolt of lightning.
On Baal’s turn, nothing happens, even though they coat the sacrifice with oil.
Elijah (in the NIV) calls out:
> At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
Some paraphrastic versions put in “going to the bathroom” for being deep in thought.
---
### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2025, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/12 "2025-08-23T00:53:34Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#):
>
> Some paraphrastic versions put in “going to the bathroom” for being deep in thought.
My Old Testament professor, who was also my Biblical Hebrew professor, said that ‘going to the bathroom’ was the actual meaning of the Hebrew, and that ‘deep in thought’ was the cleaned-up paraphrase.
---
### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2025, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/13 "2025-08-23T01:04:56Z")
For some of us, it’s the same thing.
---
### Author:  [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2025, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/14 "2025-08-23T01:32:53Z")
That’s probably my favorite example. I seem to remember The Living Bible saying he was sitting on the toilet.
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/15 "2025-08-23T01:34:43Z")
Yeah, I was going to post that one, too. I just love the mental image of Ba’al on the crapper with a newspaper, and saying “Me damn it, what do those pesky mortals want from me now!?”.
---
### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2025, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/16 "2025-08-23T02:29:08Z")
They had some version of a toilet back then? More likely, he was sitting on a hole in the ground.
---
### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2025, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/17 "2025-08-23T06:46:51Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#):
>
> They had some version of a toilet back then?
P-man mentioned that it was from “[The Living Bible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Bible),” which appears to be a version of the Bible which uses paraphrasing of the original texts, rather than literal translation, and focuses on use of modern language, to make it more accessible for modern readers, especially younger readers.
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2025, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/18 "2025-08-23T12:25:40Z")
I’m sure they had some version of a toilet, meaning some sort of structure that made it easier for a person to put themself in position above the hole in the ground. What precise form that took, I don’t know: A seat with a hole in it, or a crossbar, or grab bars to help you squat, or something.
---
### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2025, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/19 "2025-08-23T21:06:18Z")
In the book of Numbers, the pagan prophet Balaam is riding out to do some bad stuff. The Deity sends an angel to block his path. When his donkey refuses to cross the angel, he starts whipping it. The donkey speaks, saying “Why are you beating me? I have always obeyed you, and let you ride me.” Some commentators think that the word “ride” was intended to have a sexual double entendre.
Balaam is one of the earliest people for whom there is evidence of his existence outside the Bible. The story may be the world’s oldest political hatchet job.
---
### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404/20 "2025-08-24T01:03:47Z")
Thanks for all the answers.
They all seem to be about trash talking individuals. Are there any others like the one in the OP, where an entire people is trash talked?
Note: please don’t suggest the Curse of Ham. It doesn’t seem to be trash talking, although some people may think it is. Ditto for the Curse of Cain.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-trash-talking/1022404.md?page=2)