Exodus 20:16

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
bear	תַעֲנֶ֥ה ta.'a.Neh	H6030	properly · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
false	שָֽׁקֶר Sha.ker	H8267	an untruth · noun, common masculine singular absolute
witness	עֵ֥ד 'ed	H5707	concretely · noun, common masculine singular construct
neighbour	בְרֵעֲךָ֖ ve.re.'a.Kha	H7453	an associate (more or less close) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Proverbs 19:5 A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.
Matthew 19:18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear fal…
Psalms 15:3 He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.
Exodus 23:1 Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
Deuteronomy 19:15-21 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or…
Matthew 26:59-60 Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death;
Proverbs 10:18 He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool.
Acts 6:13 And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Exodus 20:12-17

We have here the laws of the second table, as they are commonly called, the last six of the ten commandments, comprehending our duty to ourselves and to one another, and constituting a comment upon the second great commandment, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. As religion towards God is an essential branch of universal righteousness, so righteousness towards men is an essential branch of true religion. Godliness and honesty must go together. I. The fifth commandment concerns the duties we owe to our relations; those of children to their parents are alone specified: Honour thy father and thy mother, which includes, 1. A decent respect to their persons, an inward esteem of them outwar…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 20:8

Remember the sabbath day--implying it was already known, and recognized as a season of sacred rest. The first four commandments [Exo 20:3-11] comprise our duties to God--the other six [Exo 20:12-17] our duties to our fellow men; and as interpreted by Christ, they reach to the government of the heart as well as the lip (Mat 5:17). "If a man do them he shall live in them" [Lev 18:5; Neh 9:29]. But, ah! what an if for frail and fallen man. Whoever rests his hope upon the law stands debtor to it all; and in this view every one would be without hope were not "the LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" [Jer 23:6; Jer 33:16] (Joh 1:17).

Adam Clarke on Exodus 20:16

Thou shalt not bear false witness, etc. - Not only false oaths, to deprive a man of his life or of his right, are here prohibited, but all whispering, tale-bearing, slander, and calumny; in a word, whatever is deposed as a truth, which is false in fact, and tends to injure another in his goods, person, or character, is against the spirit and letter of this law. Suppressing the truth when known, by which a person may be defrauded of his property or his good name, or lie under injuries or disabilities which a discovery of the truth would have prevented, is also a crime against this law. He who bears a false testimony against or belies even the devil himself, comes under the curse of this law,…

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The Church Fathers

The law says to you, for example, "You shall not bear false witness." If you know what the truth of the evidence is, you have light in your mind. But if you are overcome by greed for sordid gain and decide in your heart of hearts to bear false witness for the sake of it, then you are already beginning to be tossed about by the storm in the absence of Christ. You are being heaved up and down by the waves of your avarice, you are being endangered by the tempest of your desires, and with Christ apparently absent, you are on the verge of sinking.
— Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 75.5

In the Decalogue itself it is written, "You shall not bear false witness," in which classification every lie is embraced, for whoever pronounces any statement gives testimony to his own mind. If anyone should argue that not every lie should be called false witness, what will he answer to this statement which is also in the sacred Scriptures: "The mouth that belies, kills the soul"? If anyone should think that this passage can be interpreted to except certain lies, he may read in another passage: "You will destroy all that speak a lie." In this connection, our divine Lord said with his own lips, "Let your speech be 'yes, yes'; 'no, no'; and whatever is more comes from the evil one." Hence the apostle too, when he directs that the old man should be put off, under which term all sins are understood, goes on to explain his remark and specifically says, "Therefore put away lying and speak the truth."
— Augustine of Hippo, On Lying 5.6

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Decalogue — The name given by the Greek fathers to the ten commandments; “the ten words,” as the original is more literally rendered (Ex. 20:3-17). These commandments were at first written on two stone slabs…
Law of Moses — Is the whole body of the Mosaic legislation (1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 23:25; Ezra 3:2). It is called by way of eminence simply “the Law” (Heb. Torah, Deut. 1:5; 4:8, 44; 17:18, 19; 27:3, 8). As a written…
Witness — More than one witness was required in criminal cases (Deut. 17:6; 19:15). They were the first to execute the sentence on the condemned (Deut. 13:9; 17:7; 1 Kings 21:13; Matt. 27:1; Acts 7:57, 58).…
Commandments · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Commandments, The Ten · Enumerated — Enumerated
Decalogue · SeeCOMMANDMENTS — SeeCOMMANDMENTS
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · Moral law given — Moral law given
Evidence · LAWS CONCERNING — LAWS CONCERNING
False Teachers · FALSE WITNESS — FALSE WITNESS
Falsehood · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Law · .Engraved on stone — .Engraved on stone
Law Of God, The · Given: To the Israelites — Given: To the Israelites

Exodus 20:16

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Exodus 20:12-17

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 20:8

Adam Clarke on Exodus 20:16

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Exodus 20:16

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Exodus 20:12-17

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 20:8

Adam Clarke on Exodus 20:16

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Gill on Exodus 20:16

John Calvin on Exodus 20:16

Keil & Delitzsch on Exodus 20:13-17

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Exodus 20:16

Rashi on Exodus 20:15