Innuendo

Innuendo in scripture is the wordless slander — the wink, the gesture, the foot-tap that conveys malice without speech. The few verses that touch it group around the eye and the body as channels for hidden meaning.

The Wink of the Enemy

The psalmist asks for protection from those who attack without speaking the attack aloud: "Don't let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; Neither let them wink with the eye who hate me without a cause" (Ps 35:19). The hatred is "without a cause," and the sign of it is the wink — a signal exchanged among enemies, not an accusation said in the open.

The Worthless Person's Signs

Proverbs sketches the same gesture as one of the marks of a worthless man. He "winks with his eyes, who speaks with his feet, Who makes signs with his fingers" (Pr 6:13). Eye, foot, and finger replace the mouth: communication runs underneath ordinary speech, hidden in plain sight. The full body has been turned into a vocabulary of mischief.

The Wink That Causes Sorrow

A second proverb states the consequence directly: "He who winks with the eye causes sorrow; But a prating fool will fall" (Pr 10:10). Sly suggestion and reckless babble are paired — the silent signal and the open chatter both end badly. Innuendo is not a softer evil than slander; it merely hides longer before its sorrow lands.