Exodus 20:16

Webster's Bible (1833)

"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

לֹֽא־תַעֲנֶ֥ה בְרֵעֲךָ֖ עֵ֥ד שָֽׁקֶר׃

Transliteration

lōʾ-ṯaʿăneh ḇə-rēʿăḵā ʿēḏ shāqer

Grammar Details

• *lōʾ-ṯaʿăneh*: negative particle + qal imperfect, 2nd masculine singular - you shall not answer/testify
• *ḇə-rēʿăḵā*: preposition + masculine singular noun with 2nd masculine singular suffix - against your neighbor
• *ʿēḏ*: masculine singular noun - witness
• *shāqer*: masculine singular noun - falsehood

Word Meanings

• *ṯaʿăneh*: answer/testify/respond
• *rēʿăḵā*: your neighbor/your friend/your fellow
• *ʿēḏ shāqer*: false witness/lying testimony/deceptive evidence

Referenced Verses

• Prov 19:5 : 5 A false witness shall not be unpunished. He who pours out lies shall not go free.
• Matt 19:18 : 18 He said to him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "'You shall not murder.' 'You shall not commit adultery.' 'You shall not steal.' 'You shall not offer false testimony.'
• Ps 15:3 : 3 He who doesn't slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his friend, Nor casts slurs against his fellow man;
• Ps 101:5-7 : 5 I will silence whoever secretly slanders his neighbor. I won't tolerate one who is haughty and conceited. 6 My eyes will be on the faithful of the land, That they may dwell with me. He who walks in a perfect way, He will serve me. 7 He who practices deceit won't dwell within my house. He who speaks falsehood won't be established before my eyes.
• Exod 23:1 : 1 "You shall not spread a false report. Don't join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.
• Matt 26:59-60 : 59 Now the chief priests, the elders, and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus, that they might put him to death; 60 and they found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward,
• Acts 6:13 : 13 and set up false witnesses who said, "This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law.
• Eph 4:31 : 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander, be put away from you, with all malice.
• 1 Tim 1:10 : 10 for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave-traders, for liars, for perjurers, and for any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine;
• 2 Tim 3:3 : 3 without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good,
• Jas 4:11 : 11 Don't speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
• Exod 23:6-7 : 6 "You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. 7 "Keep far from a false charge, and don't kill the innocent and righteous: for I will not justify the wicked.
• Lev 19:11 : 11 "'You shall not steal; neither shall you deal falsely, nor lie to one another.
• Lev 19:16 : 16 "'You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people; neither shall you stand against the life{literally, "blood"} of your neighbor. I am Yahweh.
• Deut 19:15-21 : 15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established. 16 If an unrighteous witness rise up against any man to testify against him of wrong-doing, 17 then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days; 18 and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother; 19 then shall you do to him, as he had thought to do to his brother: so shall you put away the evil from the midst of you. 20 Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil in the midst of you. 21 Your eyes shall not pity; life [shall go] for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
• 1 Sam 22:8-9 : 8 that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none who discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who is sorry for me, or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day? 9 Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. 10 He inquired of Yahweh for him, and gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. 11 Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were in Nob: and they came all of them to the king. 12 Saul said, Hear now, you son of Ahitub. He answered, Here I am, my lord. 13 Saul said to him, Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day? 14 Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, Who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and is taken into your council, and is honorable in your house? 15 Have I today begun to inquire of God for him? be it far from me: don't let the king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for your servant knows nothing of all this, less or more. 16 The king said, You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father's house. 17 The king said to the guard who stood about him, Turn, and kill the priests of Yahweh; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and didn't disclose it to me. But the servants of the king wouldn't put forth their hand to fall on the priests of Yahweh. 18 The king said to Doeg, Turn you, and fall on the priests. Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell on the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore a linen ephod. 19 Nob, the city of the priests, struck he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, and oxen and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
• 1 Kgs 21:10-13 : 10 and set two men, base fellows, before him, and let them testify against him, saying, You did curse God and the king. Then carry him out, and stone him to death. 11 The men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, according as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them. 12 They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. 13 The two men, the base fellows, came in and sat before him: and the base fellows bore witness against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did curse God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him to death with stones.
• Prov 10:18 : 18 He who hides hatred has lying lips. He who utters a slander is a fool.
• Prov 11:13 : 13 One who brings gossip betrays a confidence, But one who is of a trustworthy spirit is one who keeps a secret.