Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 20:16
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
16. The ninth commandment. Against bearing false witness, primarily in a court of law, a specially common crime in the East, but also more generally by taking away the character of a neighbour by false imputations (cf. Exo 23:1).
bear false witness ] lit. answer (in a forensic sense, in a court of law, Deu 19:16; Deu 19:18, Num 35:30 [EVV. testify ], but also more generally, 1Sa 12:3 [‘witness’], Deu 31:21 al. [‘testify’]) as a false witness: Deu 5:20 has ‘as an empty, insincere, witness’ (the word explained on v. 7). For the penalty for false witness, see Deu 19:16-21. Cf. Pro 14:5; Pro 19:5; Pro 25:18 (same Heb. as here).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Exo 20:16
Thou shalt not hear false witness.
The Ninth Commandment
I. This Commandment is a recognition of those tribunals which are necessary to the peace and to the very existence of the State.
II. In this Commandment there is a Divine recognition of the importance of the moral judgments which men pronounce on each other: the judgments which individual men form of other men as the result of the testimony to which they have listened, whether it was true or false; the judgments which large classes of men or whole communities form of individuals, and which constitute what we call the opinion of society concerning them.
III. Many ways might be mentioned in which we may avoid bearing false witness against our neighbour.
1. We should try to form a true and just judgment of other people before we say anything against them.
2. We have no right to give our mere inferences from what we know about the conduct and principles of others as though they were facts.
3. We have no right to spread an injurious report merely because somebody brought it to us. (R. W. Dale, D. D.)
The law of truth
1. There is no engine by which we help or harm one another more than by our speech. In one aspect words are mere counters, but he who supposes them to be only that is greatly mistaken; more often they are very children of our inner selves, out-growing quickly the control of their parents, and entering upon an independent career which may be full as sunshine is of blessing, or more destructive than a prairie-fire.
2. What is truth? It stands for the relation which God has established between things, the relation in which their harmony consists. It expresses conformity to fact–what really is seen as it is. It accords with, and is, the constitution of all things. It is of the essential substance of God; for if God were not true He would not be God. The more we think about this sublime theme, the more we see its ineffable dignity, and that the law which guards truth must be of supreme importance.
I. Consider this law in relation to courts of justice.
1. The literal form of the precept implies the existence of a court of justice. Here is a definite acknowledgment, at least by implication, of the principle of state tribunals; and if of tribunals, then also of governments, and of the necessary machinery of government.
2. Courts of justice exist, as their name implies, in order that justice may be done; and justice can only be done in proportion as truth prevails. The supreme business of every member of the court, from the judge to the humblest official, is with truth.
II. Consider this law in relation to public opinion.
1. It is not by any means an ideal bar, this of public opinion: inconsistent in much, inconsequent in more; not patient in sifting evidence, nor impartial in hearing both sides, nor cautious in coming to conclusions; liable also to bursts of impulse, when, as in a wind-swept cornfield, all heads are bowed one way only to bend back again at the next breath: often its judgments are hasty, not seldom warped, sometimes cruelly unjust. Nevertheless, public opinion is a great natural assize, where every one of us passes judgment upon others, and where others pass judgment upon every one of us–a court with wider jurisdiction than any other in the world, a court always sitting, a court everywhere present. The special moment and consequence of its decisions lies in the fact that they affect our reputation. This being so, every man has a right to demand of every other man, and every man is bound to accord to every other man, a true and righteous witness.
2. In glancing at the more conspicuous forms of false witness in the court of public opinion, one dark and monstrous shape demands immediate notice. I mean slander, the deliberate invention of a lie to injure a neighbour. All forms of wilful misrepresentation, base insinuation, wanton detraction, damning with faint praise, and guilty silence that does the work of open defamation, belong to this category. Next to slander, I must mention tale-bearing, which signifies the spreading of evil reports. We ought not to carry stories to our neighbours discredit, even if they are true (Lev 19:16).
III. Consider this law in relation to the personal conscience.
1. When the Commandment says, Thy neighbour must not be wronged by untruthful words, it manifestly says also, Thou shalt not be a liar. Unless we are true, how can our witness be true? And if we are true, how can our witness be other than true? Three elements enter into a falsehood. It is a statement of what is not true; it is intended to deceive, and it violates a promise or obligation to speak the truth.
2. In this view of the obligation of every man to put away lying and speak truth with his neighbour, the paramount importance of the law of truth stands forth conspicuous. Equivocation is seen to be nothing but a lie complicated with the meanness of evasion. Mental reservations are detected as lies blackened by breach of contract. Exaggerations and extenuations, fibs and white lies, are shown to be inexcusable. Pious frauds are branded as fraudulent piety. And the one only course open to a Christian man in his dealings with his neighbour is to speak truth. Dare to be true; nothing can need a lie! (W. J. Woods, B. A.)
The Ninth Commandment
This Commandment hath a prohibitory, and a mandatory part: the first is set down in plain words, the other is clearly implied.
1. The prohibitory part of the Commandment, or, what it forbids in general. It forbids anything which may tend to the disparagement or prejudice of our neighbour. More particularly, two things are forbidden in this Commandment.
(1) Slandering our neighbour. The scorpion carries his poison in his tail; the slanderer carries his poison in his tongue. Slandering is to report things of others unjustly; they laid things to my charge which I knew not. Eminency is commonly blasted by slander. Holiness itself is no shield from slander. The lambs innocency will not preserve it from the wolf. We must not only not raise a false report, but not take it up. He that raiseth a slander, carries the devil in his tongue: and he that receives it, carries the devil in his ear.
(2) The second thing forbidden in this Commandment is false witness. Here three sins are condemned:
(a) Speaking that which is false; lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. There is nothing more contrary to God than a lie. Imitate God who is the pattern of truth. Pythagoras being asked what made men like God answered, When they speak truth. It is made the character of a man that shall go to heaven; he speaketh the truth in his heart.
(b) That which is condemned in the Commandment is witnessing that which is false; thou shalt not bear false witness. There is a bearing of false witness for another, and a bearing false witness against another.
(c) That which is condemned in the Commandment is swearing that which is false. When men take a false oath, and by that, take away the life of another. The Scythians made a law, when a man did bind two sins together, a lie with an oath, he was to lose his head, because this sin did take away all truth and faith from among men. The devil hath taken great possession of such who dare swear to a lie.
2. The mandatory part of this Commandment: that is, that we stand up for others and vindicate them, when they are injured by lying lips. A man may wrong another as well by silence as by slander when he knows him to be wrongfully accused, yet doth not speak in his behalf. If others cast false aspersions on any, we should wipe them off. When the primitive Christians were falsely accused for incest, and killing their children, Tertullian made a famous apology in their vindication. This is to act the part both of a friend and of a Christian, to be an advocate for another, when he is wronged in his good name. (T. Watson.)
The scope of the Ninth Commandment
This Commandment checks all propensities to lying, and commands truthfulness of speech to and about our neighbour. It is very difficult to over-estimate the value of truth or the importance of being truthful in character and speech. There is a reality to the things and the laws which surround us and are within us which we call truth. When our thoughts exactly correspond with this reality we have apprehended truth. When we conform ourselves to this we are true. If our thought does not exactly correspond with this reality we are in error, and error is a mischief to us. We disobey the laws, we abuse the things about us, we are like blind men striking against obstacles, falling into pits. The nature of things remains unchanged, the laws are immutable, but we are false to them. Truth is not merely to be known, it is to be transmitted into life. Man is to be so hearty in his allegiance to the truth he knows, that he lives it and speaks it. The man who knows the truth and disobeys it, is false in his nature. He may not deceive his neighbours as to himself. Every one may know he is a false man, but his whole life is bearing false witness as to the truth, and as to it may deceive many. The greater part of the truth we possess we have derived from others. There is an exchange of truth. Men who search in one realm give the truth they find to their fellows who are searching in other realms, and receive truth from them in return, and each generation leaves its rich legacy of inherited and acquired truth to the following, and thus the race advances in the knowledge of truth. Wide is the realm of truth, in earth and sky, in matter and spirit, in time and eternity. Man should not shut his fellow out from any portion of it. If any one bears false witness to any part of the wide realm of truth, it is always against his neighbour, depriving him wrongfully of that which is of the greatest importance to his well-being. Great is the difference between truth and falsehood. Infinity and eternity cannot measure it. Of God it is said; He is light. He is the truth. Of the devil it is said: There is no truth in him. He is a liar and the father of it. Hell is the home of universal falsehood and distrust. Each one there is alone in the midst of others, deceiving and being deceived, distrusting and being distrusted. Heaven is the home of universal truth and confidence. The more we follow truth, the nearer we advance to God. The truths in nature are His thoughts, written on the heavens in light, on the earth in beauty, on our souls in virtue. As we express truth we help others to advance to Him, by small steps or large, according to the importance of the truths we speak. The Commandment requires truth in ordinary conversation. Conjecture and partial information must be spoken of as such, not made to pass for complete knowledge. We must strive to know fully, that we may speak clearly. Vivid, sprightliness, and colour may be employed to interest in and set forth the truth, not to gain applause, and all exaggeration must be avoided. Our aim must not be selfish, to be considered as having had a wonderful experience, or as having fine descriptive powers, or as being well informed, but simply to convey truth to our neighbour. In all those cases in which we speak to our neighbour with intent to lead him to a desired line of conduct, our self-interest may be aroused against our loyalty to truth. Mental reservation, double meaning, significant silence, the end justifies the means, and all kindred evasions, may quiet a confused conscience, but will never do to plead before a truth-loving God. But, says the business man, must I reveal the defects in the property I am trying to sell? Must I reveal the fact I have skilfully acquired, that prices in the market will be much lower tomorrow? Certainly, you must, or you will both lie and steal in one act. We are to speak truth, again, not only to our neighbour, but about him. This Commandment guards a mans reputation–gives each man a right to have his reputation the exact expression of his character. We should guard against secret prejudice against our neighbour, or envy of him, and should cultivate such love for him that we will rejoice in his good qualities and in his good name, that we will sorrow over the faults in him we cannot help seeing, and throw over them the garment of Christian charity, rather than exulting to proclaim them to the world. This Commandment should govern not only our tongues, but our hearts and ears as well. It forbids an appetite for gossip, a desire to hear detraction, and a tendency to form unfavourable opinions of others. By holding our peace when we have it in our power to defend, by failing to mention the good when the evil is spoken of, by encouraging the telling of evil by eager listening, we assault the reputation of our neighbour by the assent of our silence. There is a modern statue of Truth, instinct with the fire of genius, which strongly incites an opposite spirit and action. A stately woman in pure white marble, with beautiful and firm face, wears on her head a helmet and carries a sword in her hand. At her feet lies a mask touched by the point of her sword. She has just smitten it from the face of Slander, and now she proudly draws her robe away from its polluting touch. (F. S. Schenck.)
The Ninth Commandment
I. This command prohibits lying.
1. What a lie is.
(1) A lie, according to St. Austins definition of it, is a voluntary speaking of an untruth, with an intent to deceive.
(2) Lies are usually distinguished into three kinds.
(a) There is a jocular lie: a lie, framed to excite mirth and laughter; not to deceive the hearer, only to please and divert him.
(b) There is an officious lie: which is told for anothers benefit and advantage; and seems to make an abundant compensation for its falsehood, by its use and profit.
(c) There is a malicious and pernicious lie: a lie, devised on purpose for the hurt and damage of my neighbour.
2. Now, for the aggravations of this sin, consider–
(1) It is a sin, that makes you most like unto the devil.
(2) Consider, that it is a sin most contrary to the nature of God, who is truth itself.
(3) Consider, that it is a sin, that gives in fearful evidence against us, that we belong to the devil, and are his children.
(4) Consider, how dreadfully God hath threatened it with eternal death (Rev 22:15).
(5) A lie showeth a most degenerous and cowardly fear of men, and a most daring contempt of the great God.
(6) Mankind generally account it the most infamous and reproachful sin of all others.
(7) It is a sin that God will detect; and exposeth those who are guilty of it to shame and contempt (Pro 12:19).
II. There remain two other violations of this Commandment: the one is, by slander and detraction; the other, by base flattery and soothing. And both these may respect either ourselves or others.
1. Indeed slander and detraction seem somewhat to differ. For slander, properly, is a false imputation of vice; but detraction is a causeless, diminishing report of virtue.
(1) If thou wouldst keep thyself from being a slanderer of others, addict not thyself violently to any one party or persuasion of men.
(2) If thou wouldst not be guilty of slander, be not busy in other mens affairs.
(3) If thou wouldst not be guilty of slander, be frequent in reflecting upon thine own miscarriages; or thy proneness to fall into the same, or greater faults.
(4) If you would not be guilty of slander, listen not unto those who are slanderers and detractors.
(5) If you would not be slanderers of others be not self-lovers. For self-love always causeth envy; and envy detraction.
(6) Be not too easy and facile to entertain suspicious and evil surmises against others.
III. The third sin against this Commandment is base flattery and soothing; which is a quite opposite extreme to the other, as both are opposite to truth. Now this is, either self-flattery, or the flattering of others.
1. There is a self-flattery. Learn, therefore, O Christian, to take the just measure of thyself.
2. There is a sinful flattering of others: and that, either by an immoderate extolling of their virtues; or, what is worse, by a wicked commendation even of their very vices. This is a sin most odious unto God, who hath threatened to cut off all flattering lips (Psa 12:3). (Bp. E. Hopkins.)
Slander
A man of overweening curiosity who looked down his neighbours chimney to see what he was cooking for supper, not only failed to find out what he desired to know, but was nearly blinded by the smoke. Somebody has conveyed a well-deserved rebuke to such unamiable people, who said, If we would sit down by our neighbours fire occasionally, instead of looking down his chimney, we would see many good points in his character that smoke will certainly obscure. There are so many ways of kindling a flame by the poisonous breath of slander, that only a few of them can now be referred to.
I. Perverting ones words or actions is an every-day occurrence.
II. Another way by which flames are often kindled to the damage of ones good name, is the habit of jumping to conclusions without sufficient evidence to sustain them. While Wilberforce occupied his prominent place in the British parliament he was exceedingly annoyed by finding himself chronicled in opposition papers as St. Wilberforce. He was lately seen, said the slanderous print, walking up and down in the pump-room at Bath, reading his prayers, like his predecessors of old, who prayed at the corners of the streets to be seen of men! Mr. Wilberforce, who was not more distinguished for his brilliant mental gifts than for his unobtrusive goodness, remarked upon this wanton falsehood: As there is generally some slight circumstance which perverse-ness turns into a charge or reproach, I began to reflect, and I soon found the occasion of the calumny. I was walking in the pump-room, in conversation with a friend; a passage from Horace was quoted, the accuracy of which was questioned, and as I had a copy of the Latin poet in my pocket, I took it out and read the words. This was the plain bit of wire which factious malignity sharpened into a pin to pierce my reputation. It is pitiful to think how many ugly pins have been fashioned out of smaller bits of wire than that l
III. The cruel purposes of slander may also be accomplished by sly insinuations and crafty questions calculated to arouse serious and damaging suspicions. When any one spoke evil of another in the presence of Peter the Great, he would promptly stop him and say, Well, now; but has he not got a bright side? Come, tell me what good you know of him. It is easy to splash mud; but I would rather help a man to keep his coat clean l
IV. Slander is encouraged by those who patiently listen to it, and who prompt the cruel person to vent his venom on the innocent. (J. H. Norton, D. D.)
Violations of the law of truth
I. Misrepresentation. It is an ingenious method to class an opponent with those whom the world has already condemned as heterodox. It is still another to make his truth responsible for all the folly that unwise minds have added to it.
II. Insinuation. A whisper dropped carelessly in some corner among the combustibles, a look, a shrug of the shoulders, a sneer, a laugh may serve the purpose. Rumour with most minds is presumptive evidence, and they will say with a knowing air, There must be some fire in so much smoke.
III. Detraction. If we be unable to find evil in the opinions or actions of another, we can attribute his good to doubtful motives.
IV. Talebearing. Is there, I pray you, a creature more contemptible than this, who fattens on the griefs of others, and passes day and night in such petty larceny? How few dream of their responsibility in this! We know the power of strychnine or arsenic, but not of a word. What undesigned phrases we drop in conversation, and forget as soon as passed, yet they are never forgotten! What insignificant insects may have a fatal sting! (E. A. Washburn, D. D.)
The Ninth Commandment
This Commandment requires us, as the Catechism says, to keep our tongues from evil-speaking, lying, and slandering. Slandering means saying anything that will injure the character of another person. There was a company of ladies once at the house of a clergyman. As he entered the room he heard them speaking in a low voice of an absent friend. Shes very odd, says one. Yes, very singular indeed, says another. Do you know, she often does so and so? says a third, mentioning certain things to her discredit. The clergyman asked who it was. When told, he said, Oh yes, she is odd; shes very odd; shes remarkably singular. Why, would you believe it? he added, in a slow, impressive manner; she was never heard to speak ill of any absent friends! A clergyman was once examining the children of an infant school upon the Commandments. He put his hand on the head of a little boy, and said, My little man, can you tell me what the Ninth Commandment means by bearing false witness against thy neighbour? The boy hesitated a while, and then said, It means telling lies, sir. The minister didnt exactly like this answer, so looking at a little girl who stood next to him, he asked, What do you say? Without waiting a moment, she replied, Its when nobody does nothing, and somebody goes and tells of it. Very good, said the minister. The little girls answer was a very funny one; but the little boys was true. Bearing false witness is telling lies, and telling lies is bearing false witness. We break the Ninth Commandment every time we tell a lie.
I. The first reason why we should never bear false witness or tell a lie is, because it is a mean thing. Who was the first person of whom we know that ever told a lie? Satan. Where was this lie told? In the garden of Eden. Satan bore false witness against God. He contradicted God. This was mean of Satan. He did it out of spite. A gentleman once sent his servant to market with the direction to bring home the best thing he could find. He carried home a tongue. He was sent again with the direction to bring home the worst thing he could find. Again he brought home a tongue. This was right; for the tongue is the best thing in the world when properly used, or the worst when not so used.
II. The second reason why we should not do it is, because it is aa unprofitable thing. People generally expect to make something when they tell a lie.
III. The third reason why we ought not to do this is, because it is dangerous. Lying is like letting water through a bank. When it once begins to run, there is no telling where it will stop. Now, suppose it were possible all at once to draw every bolt and fastening out of that ship as she sails over the ocean, what would become of her? She would fall to pieces directly, and all her cargo would be lost. Well, every family, every village or town, is like such a ship. It is made up of a number of persons bound together. And what binds them together? Why, truth or confidence. Truth among people in society is like the bolt in the ship. If nobody told the truth, and people had no confidence in one another, they could no more live together in families or communities, and do business together, than a number of pieces of timber without bolts to fasten them together could make a ship. Would it not be very dangerous to have a person on board a ship who had a machine for drawing the bolts out, and who was trying to use it all the time? Certainly it would. Well, lying is such a machine.
IV. Our fourth and last reason is, we ought not to do it because it is a wicked thing. This is shown by–
1. What God says of liars (see Pro 6:19; Pro 12:5).
2. What God does with liars (see Rev 21:8). (R. Newton, D. D.)
On the sin of bearing false witness
I. First, what are the different senses in which a man may be said to bear false witness against his neighbour.
II. The enormity of the sin of bearing false witness. The malignity of an offence arises either from the motives that prompted it or the consequences produced by it. The most usual incitement to defamation is envy, or impatience of the merit, or success of other; a malice raised not by any injury received, but merely by the sight of that happiness which we cannot attain. Calumnies are sometimes the offspring of resentment. When a man is opposed in a design which he cannot justify, and defeated in the prosecution of schemes of tyranny, extortion, or oppression, he seldom fails to revenge his overthrow by blackening that integrity which effected it. The consequences of this crime, whatever be the inducement to commit it, are equally pernicious. He that attacks the reputation of another, invades the most valuable part of his property, and perhaps the only part which he can call his own. (Bp. J. Taylor, D. D.)
Breaches of the Ninth Commandment
I. In heart a man may fail–
1. By suspecting others unjustly, this is called evil surmising (1Ti 6:4), which is when men are suspected of some evil without ground, as Potiphar suspected Joseph.
2. By rash judging, and unjust concluding concerning a mans state, as Jobs friends did; or his actions, as Eli did of Hannah, saying, that she was drunk, because of the moving of her lips.
3. By hasty judging, too often passing sentence in our mind from some seeming evidence of that which is only in the heart, and not in the outward practice; this is but to judge before the time, and hastily (Mat 7:1).
4. There is light judging, laying the weight of conclusions upon arguments that will not bear it, as Jobs friends did, and as the barbarians suspected Paul, when they saw the viper on his hand, to be a murderer (Act 25:4).
5. The breach of this command in the heart may be when suspicion of our neighbours failing is kept up, and means not used to be satisfied about it, contrary to that (Mat 18:15). If thy brother offend thee, etc., and when we seek not to be satisfied, but rest on presumptions, when they seem probable.
II. In gesture this command may be broken, by nodding, winking, or such like (and even sometimes by silence), when these import in our accustomed way some tacit sinistrous insinuation, especially when either they are purposed for that end, or when others are known to mistake because of them, and we suffer them to continue under this mistake.
III. By writing this command may be broken, as Ezr 5:6.; Neh 6:5, where calumniating rebels are written, and sent by their enemies against the Jews and Nehemiah; in which respect many fail in these days.
IV. But words are most properly the seat wherein this sin is subjected, whether they be only or merely words, or also put in writing, because in these our conformity or disconformity to truth doth most appear. (James Durham.)
Slander
The false witness which was born against the Puritans by the profligate wits of the court of Charles II., produced in the mind of this country a strong antagonism to the great principles for which the Puritans contended. The calumnies which, during the first two centuries, were flung at the Christians, made many upright heathen believe that Christianity itself was an execrable superstition. Slander a clergyman and you help to make the principle of an Established Church odious, and you try to win the cause of ecclesiastical freedom before the tribunal of public opinion by false witness against your neighbour. Slander a Nonconformist and you help to make Nonconformity odious, and you try by false witness against your neighbour to induce the tribunal of public opinion to pronounce in favour of religious establishments. Pick up and circulate any scandal you may happen to hear–no matter how untrustworthy the authority for it–to the dishonour of a religious man, and you do what lies in your power to create a conviction in the public mind that all religious men are hypocrites, and that religion itself is an imposture. It is by the opinion which society forms on individuals that its general opinions on all questions, moral, religious, and political, are to a very large extent created; and to bear false witness either for or against any man is to attempt to deceive and to mislead that great Tribunal–whose decisions affect not merely the happiness and the reputation of particular men, but the formation of the conscience and the judgment of the whole nation. (R. W. Dale, D. D.)
False witness
There was a boy of the name of John Busby. He said once, What a wicked man Mr. Bradburry is. A gentleman said to him, I do not think he is wicked; I think he is very good; he is always on the line of his duty. I only know, said John, that he went to church last Sunday, and he slept all through the sermon. The other was very much surprised, because he thought Mr. Bradburry was a very good man; so he said to the boy, Can you tell me what the text was? No, I cant, said John; but I can tell you Mr. Bradburry was asleep all the time. Then, said the gentleman to him, I happen to know the text; for Mr. Bradburry told me not only the text, but all about the sermon. You say he was fast asleep; but I can tell you he has got very weak eyes, and there is a gas lamp between him and the pulpit; and he is obliged to shut his eyes because he cannot stand the light. Do you see, that was bearing false witness on the part of John Busby; that was slander, taking away his character. We must not bear false witness. We used sometimes to play a game called Scandal. It is a very good game. You all sit round in a circle, and somebody tells a person at one end a story he has heard about something or somebody–anything you like. He whispers it to the next one, and he again whispers it to the next, and he to the next, and to the next. When it comes to the last person, he is to say aloud what he has had whispered to him, and the first is to say what he had said. Often the act of repeating it all around makes it seem quite a different story. That is called Scandal or Slander. You try that game some day, and it will teach you the importance of being very exact in repeating what you hear, if you would not bear false witness. (J. Vaughan.)
A cure for backbiting
A gentleman writes that he once saw the title Slander Book, printed on the back of a small ledger in a friends house. On examining it, he found that the various members of the household were charged so much for every piece of slander they were found uttering. The accounts were very neatly and correctly kept, credits entered, etc., as in a merchants office. The plan originated with a good young girl, who had observed the wretched effects of evil-speaking in families and in the neighbourhood.
Scandal
The story is told of a woman who freely used her tongue to the scandal of others, and made confession to the priest of what she had done. He gave her a ripe thistle top, and told her to go out in various directions and scatter the seeds, one by one. Wondering at the penance, she obeyed, and then returned and told her confessor. To her amazement, he bade her go back and gather the scattered seeds; and when she objected that it would be impossible, he replied, that it would be still more difficult to gather up and destroy all evil reports which she had circulated about others. Any thoughtless, careless child can scatter a handful of thistle-seed before the wind in a moment, but the strongest and wisest man cannot gather them again.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
THE NINTH COMMANDMENT
Against false testimony, perjury, c.
Verse 16. Thou shalt not bear false witness, &c.] 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, because his testimony is false. By the term neighbour any human being is intended, whether he rank among our enemies or friends.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Heb. not answer, viz. when thou art asked in judgment, Lev 5:1; 19:16; or, not speak a false testimony, or as a false witness; which doth not only forbid perjury in judgment, but also all unjust censure, slander, backbiting, scorning, false accusation, and the like; and also requires a just and candid judgment of him, and of his words and actions, speaking well of him, as far as truth and justice will permit, and defending his good name against the calumnies and detractions of others.
Against thy neighbour; no, nor for thy neighbours; but he saith against, both because such perjuries, slanders, &c. are most commonly designed against them, and because this is a great aggravation of the sin, when a man not only speaks evil and falsehood, but doth this from malice and ill-will. But under this kind are contained other sins of a like, though less sinful, nature, as in the other commands.
A mans
neighbour here is not only the Israelite, as some would have it, but any man; as plainly appears,
1. Because that word is frequently used in that sense, not only in the New, as all agree, but also in the Old Testament, as Gen 11:3; Lev 20:10; Est 1:19; Pro 18:17.
2. Because it is so explained, Luk 10:29,36; Ro 13:9, compared with Mat 22:39.
3. From the reason of the thing, which is common to all; unless a man will be so hardy to say that he may bear false witness against a stranger, though not against an Israelite; and, in like manner, that when God forbids a man to commit adultery with his neighbours wife, Lev 20:10, he may do it with a strangers wife; and that though a man be commanded to speak the truth to his neighbour, Zec 8:16, he may tell lies to a stranger.
4. Because the great law of love and charity, which is the life and soul of this and all the commands, and binds us to all; binds us, and bound the Israelites, to strangers, as appears from Exo 23:4; Lev 19:33,34.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Neither publicly in a court of judicature, by laying things to his charge that are false, and swearing to them, to his hurt and damage; nor privately, by whispering, tale bearing, backbiting, slandering, by telling lies of him, traducing his character by innuendos, sly insinuations, and evil suggestions, whereby he may suffer in his character, credit, and reputation, and in his trade and business; Aben Ezra thinks the words describe the character of the person that is not to bear witness in any court, and to be read thus, “thou shall not answer who art a false witness”: or, “O thou false witness”: meaning that such an one should not be admitted an evidence in court, who had been convicted already of being a false witness; his word and oath are not to be taken, nor should any questions be put to him, or he suffered to answer to any; his depositions should have no weight with those before whom they were made, nay, even they should not be taken, nor such a person be allowed to make any; but this is to put this precept in a quite different form from all the rest, and without any necessity, since the word may as well be taken for a testimony bore, as for the person that bears it: this is the ninth commandment.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
G od here makes a provision for every man’s character and good name, lest any should be undeservedly weighed down by calumnies and false accusations. The same synecdoche exists here, which I have pointed out in the previous Commandments, for God comprises many things under a single head. With reference to the words, inasmuch as עד, gned, properly means a witness, it may be literally translated, “Thou shalt not answer a false witness against thy neighbor,” but then the particle as must be supplied. The Hebrews poorly translate it in the vocative case, Thou shalt not speak, O false witness, etc.
(165) Although God seems only to prescribe that no one, for the purpose of injuring the innocent, should go into court, and publicly testify against him, yet it is plain that the faithful are prohibited from all false accusations, and not only such as are circulated in the streets, but those which are stirred in private houses and secret corners. For it would be absurd, when God has already shewn that men’s fortunes are cared for by Him, that He should neglect their reputation, which is much more precious. In whatever way, therefore, we injure our neighbors by unjustly defaming them, we are accounted false witnesses before God. We must now pass on from the prohibitive to the affirmative precept: for it will not be enough for us to restrain our tongues from speaking evil, unless we are also kind and equitable towards our neighbors, and candid interpreters of their acts and words, and do not suffer them, as far as in us lies, to be burdened with false reproaches. Besides, God does not only forbid us to invent accusations against the innocent, but also to give currency to reproaches and sinister reports in malevolence or hatred. Such a person may perhaps deserve his ill-name, and we may truly lay such or such an accusation to his charge; but if the reproach be the ebullition of our anger, or the accusation proceed from ill-will, it will be vain for us to allege in excuse that we have advanced nothing but, what is true. For when Solomon says that “love covereth many sins;” whereas “hatred brings reproaches to light,” (166) (Pro 10:12😉 he signifies, as a faithful expositor of this precept, that we are only free from falsehood when the reputation of our neighbors suffers no damage from us; for, if the indulgence of evil-speaking violates charity, it is opposed to the Law of God. In short, we must conclude that by these words a restraint is laid on all virulence of language which tends to bring disgrace on our brethren; and on all petulance also, whereby their good name suffers injury; and on all detractions, which flow from malice, or envy, and rivalry, or any other improper feeling. We must also go further, and not be suspicious or too curious in observing the defects of others; for such eager inquisitiveness betrays malevolence, or at any rate an evil disposition. For, if love is not suspicious, he who condemns his neighbor either falsely, or upon trifling surmises, or who holds him in light esteem, is undoubtedly a transgressor of this Commandment. Consequently, we must close our ears against false and evil speaking; since he is just as injurious to his brother who eagerly listens to sinister reports respecting him, as he who exercises his tongue in maligning him. The necessity of this instruction let each man estimate by his own disposition; for scarcely one in a hundred will be found who will be as kind in sparing the character of others, as he himself desires to be pardoned for manifest vices; nay, slander is often praised under the pretext of zeal and conscientiousness. Hence it happens that this vice insinuates itself even among the saints, creeping in under the name of virtue. Moreover, the volubility of the tongue causes us to think it a light transgression to inflict a deadly and disgraceful wound on our brother, to whom, nevertheless, his good name is of more importance than his life. The sum is, that we should manifest our charity no less by candor, and by abstaining from slander, than by the performance of other duties.
(165) Addition in Fr. , “Or revenons a la substance.”
(166) “Hatred stirreth up strifes; but love covereth all sins.” — A. V. The latter clause, in C. ’ s quotation, is probably rather intended to be the necessary converse of the latter part of the proverb than a paraphrastic rendering of the first, which it does not appear that the words will bear.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE NINTH COMMANDMENT VERSUS FALSE WITNESSING
Exo 20:16
Longfellow wrote:
I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong
That it can follow the flight of song?
Long, long afterward, in an oak,
I found the arrow still unbroke;
And all the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
That was Longfellows way of saying that words are imperishable.
No wonder then that the inspired James said,
If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses! mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be (Jas 3:2-10).
James and Moses are agreed then, for Moses, instructed of the Lord, said, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
I. FALSE WITNESS DEFINED
It is necessary for us to define false witness in order that we may properly appreciate its evil character; and this can probably be best done by considering some of the elements that enter into false witness.
Slander is certainly one of them. Of all the false witnesses who sting their venom into human life, few are so much feared, and so roundly hated as the slandererthat evil genius who, with malice of forethought, pours out false speech, maligning the most innocent with as much relish as if they were genuinely guilty.
Dr. Talmage, in an address delivered before the Chautauqua Assembly, said, There are schools and colleges and seminaries and universities all over the land with large catalogues of students, and alumni by the ten thousand, but the largest school in all the world is the School of Scandal. Some are freshmen, some are seniors, some long ago took the diploma with the black seal and have been practicing their professionscandals about ministers, scandals about doctors, about lawyers, about bank-officers, about state and national officials. Newspapers are, at times, surcharged with them. Do you remember what the faithful Pisanio said to the noble Imogene,
What shall I need to draw my sword?
The paper hath cut her throat already.
No; tis slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie
All corners of the world: kings, queens, and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave
This viperous slander enters.
Among all the servants of the devil, I doubt if he has a one, even including the highest emissaries of the pit, who suits him quite so well as that man or woman who makes slander the chief business of life, and against whom God has thundered this commandment: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour, and it would seem indeed that some of these, like Judas, the deceiver, have had a devil from the beginning, for of them the Psalmist said, They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies (Psa 58:3).
Unwarranted speech also enters into false witness. There are many people who have never deliberately decided to defame their fellows, and are not altogether conscious of so doing, who, nevertheless, are found practicing the evil custom of unwarranted speech, such as Paul described when he warned Timothy against those who wander from house to house, and are not only idle, but tattlers also, and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not (1Ti 5:13).
George Eliot in Felix Holt, speaking of a day in which Mrs. Transome had lost control of herself and said very unnecessary and unwise things, making herself disagreeable to no purpose, comments, Half the sorrow of women would be averted if they would repress the speech they know to be useless; nay, the speech they had resolved not to utter
Down in New York City, in one of the prominent stores, a circle of small girls organized themselves into what was known as the Doorkeepers Circle. When somebody asked them why they took that name, they replied, Because our motto is, Keep thou the door of my mouth How many, well grown now, and how many in the middle life or past, were in need of just such a circle as a factor in their early education?
The world would be rid of almost half of her miseries if the suspicious, the garrulous, the gossiping, the lying could be converted, for Shakespeare was right when he made Iago, the slanderer, to say,
Good name, in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse, steals trash;
tis something, nothing.
Twas mine, tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
I understand that in a museum at Venice, there is a machine by which one of the old Italian tyrants used to shoot poisoned needles at the object of his hatred. It is now regarded as a relic of a barbarous age, the invention of a diabolical king. But the instrument is not out of date, and the user of it is not dead, for in every block you can find a man or a woman who has converted the tongue into such a machine, and human speech into such arrows, and even their best friends are not certain of escape from the sting and poison thereof. The ninth commandment then is not yet out of dateThou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
An evil insinuation is equally an element of false witness. One need not utter a word in order to be guilty of transgression of the ninth commandment. George Eliot, you remember, says, There are glances of hatred that stab and raise no cry of murder. There are speeches that sound well enough if you consider only the words employed, but when the air with which they are uttered is taken into account, the same discovery is made that the Psalmist expressed on learning the treachery of a friend, His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His Words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords (Psa 55:12).
Pope had evidently learned something of this same insinuator, for he said in the Prologue to Satires,
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer;
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
Just hint a fault, a hesitate dislike?
It is perfectly amazing how easy it is for some people to find in their neighbors faults that ought to be uncovered; sins that ought to be exposed; and facts (?) which they regard as spoiling for publication! Of these people, Talmage said, They can smell an imperfection fifty miles away. The crow has no faculty for finding carrion comparable to theirs for discovering defects. They are what he styles inspectors of warts and supervisors of carbuncles and truly does he remark of the vicinity in which such an one lives, Satan does not have to keep a very sharp lookout for his evil dominion in that neighborhood. He has let out to the tattler the whole contract. She gets husbands and wives into quarrels, and brothers and sisters into antagonisms, and disgusts the pastor with the flock and the flock with the pastor, and makes neighbors suspicious of each other. I have more respect for a poor waif who goes down under the gas light in a faded shawl, with no God, and no home, than I have for one of these respectable hags of society, with tiger claws covered up with a fine shawl, and the hell of her heart bolted with a diamiond breast-pin. For God has said, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
II. FALSE WITNESS CONDEMNED
We have sought for a definition of false witness by considering the elements that enter into it. Let us now turn to Gods reasons for its condemnation.
First of all, it evidences an evil heart. One time after the Pharisees had been maligning Jesus, and had called Him the Prince of devils, Jesus said unto them,
O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man, out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment, for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned (Mat 12:34-37).
It is condemned also because injurious to man. The man witnessed against is done an irreparable wrong.
In New Albany, Ind., I had a friend whose father had excited the anger of a base fellow. One day, as this father was going aboard the Ohio steamer, he felt a sharp pain in the small of the back, but sup-
posed that it was either from a wrench of muscle in walking or touch of muscular rheumatism, and he did not turn his head. But shortly there was a sensation as of blood trickling from the place of pain; and, on examination, he discovered that he had been stabbed to the vitals by a lance so sharp and small that his assailant had escaped undiscovered. When, some time later, he died, his daughter believed his decease the result of this stab.
But what is his injury as compared to that of a friend in a neighboring state who had given himself to the ministry of the Gospel, and, though but a short time out of, the Seminary, was making for himself an enviable reputation, namely, that of an efficient worker for God, but whose professional death was accomplished a few months since by the slanderous tongues and pens of two or three people. Changing George Eliots language but a little, we may say, with dreadful truth, Aye, there are words of hatred that stab and raise no cry of murder.
False witness is condemned as an insult to God. In that first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, wherein the dark deeds of heathenism are pictured with the inspired pen, Paul speaks of those who had been given up of God to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who change the Truth of God into a lie. This last sentence describes what every false witness does; by his every deceptious word, he changes the Truth of God into a lie. The time ought to come, my friends, when each of us shall realize, as David did, that every sin against our fellows is an affront to the character and will of our Heavenly Father. When David had been guilty of his greatest sin, that of pushing to the forefront in war where he was killed, one whose beautiful wife he coveted, he did not suppose himself guilty of wronging man alone, but still more guilty of an insult to God. And, after acknowledging his sin, he said to the Lord, Against Thee, and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight. The ninth commandment then means more than condemnation of false witness against ones neighbor. It is also directed against insult to God, who is the Truth.
But perhaps the greater reason still for this condemnation of false witness is the injury it effects for those who bear it.
God, who is love, would save even the slanderer from that social, moral, and spiritual suicide, which is the inevitable result of the false witness. Some people are always alarmed for themselves when others speak against them. The man who is righteous should be alarmed for the spokesman instead.
The public is a wonderful judge for finding out the truth, and eventually condemning the real fellow. In the ancient time, the lepers of the East land, when they came near any of their fellows, were compelled to put their hands to their mouths and cry aloud, Unclean! Unclean! But that moral leper who lives by slander needs not so to do, for very speedily society, discovering his real character, will, at his approach, lift a thousand fingers, and pointing toward him, cry, Unclean! Unclean! And such a man or woman will find for himself and herself a broad walk through the world.
All good people make room for the individual of evil speech.
And we have said his moral and spiritual suicide is equally certain. A man who starts out to injure his fellows by false witness, will learn what Christ meant in the Sermon on the Mount, Judge not, if ye would not be judged; for with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. I never yet knew a man to slander his neighbors, but the public shortly brought him to grief, and he ended his course by complaints that people had unjustly criticised and condemned him. Evil speech is a boomerang and it strikes harder on its return than it did when going forth.
It is reported that a Bishop persuaded Louis the XIth to make an iron cage so low that men could not stand up in it, and so short that they could not lie down, into which were to be put all the people who did not think as the Bishop and Louis the XIth did. About the time the cage was finished, the Bishop offended Louis, and the King immediately proceeded to put him into the tortures of his own invention. Such is the practice of the mighty monarch, Public Opinion, toward those men and women who use their genius to the injury of their fellows.
And if this were the end, false witnesses might endure it; but need I remind you that God has in reservation for such His own judgment. Some people seem to imagine that slander, unwarranted speech, wicked insinuations, etc., are small sins, almost, if not quite, compatible with Christian character! But have we never read the register of the pit?
The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death (Rev 21:8).
One might imagine that liars were put last here by mere accident, but for the circumstance that when the same inspired penman tells us who are cast without the gates of the City of God, he catalogues again, Dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie (Rev 22:15).
But our text impresses me with more than its prohibitions. By inference, at least,
TRUE WITNESSING IS COMMANDED
It is not enough to refrain from false speech. The silent man is not keeping the spirit as well as the letter of the ninth commandment.
The truth should be spoken. Paul rightly interpreted this commandment, when, to the Ephesians, he said, Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour (Eph 4:25).
You remember that George Eliot speaking of an address which Felix Holt made in defense of his conduct on the day of the riot, says, The sublime delight of truthful speech to one who has the gift of uttering it, will make itself felt even through the pangs of sorrow. Whoever met a truth-speaking man without being blessed by the acquaintance. The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life (Pro 10:11). Oh, that of each of us it might be said what Julia of Verona declared of her lover Proteus!
His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles;
His love sincere, has thought immaculate;
His tears pure messengers, sent from his heart
His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.
The truth shall be spoken in love. To the Ephesians, Paul addressed the word of warning against the winds of doctrine with which men were carried about, and called upon them to speak the truth in love, that they might grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ (Eph 4:15).
The secret of failure of many men is that they know not how to speak the truth in love. Dr. Gordan says, Two chemical elements which are very mild and innocuous in themselves often have prodigious energy when combined. So it is with love and truth. Those who preach love alone are often the weakest and most ineffective witnesses for Christ; those who preach the truth alone not infrequently demonstrate the impotence of a soulless orthodoxy. But the truth in love is vital, penetrating, and has the dynamic force which we seek. Pleasant words are as honey-comb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones (Pro 16:24).
The more precious the truth, the more should it be published. When a man talks with his neighbor touching the news of the day, in what he says, he should strive to be truthful. When a man discusses with his fellows politics, honesty should characterize his every word. But the truth of religion the truth that Christ died for men; the truth that by His Blood our sins are washed; the truth that through His Holy Spirit we have salvation, peace that passeth knowledge, assurance, an earnest of the world to comethese are the things of which we must speak, publishing them more and more.
Silence may be golden, but for the regenerated, dispossessed Galilean, silence would be sinGo home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee. Ah, that is the truth for which the world is dying today. Ye false witnesses, I call you to a better vocation in Christ! Come to Him and be forgiven and consecrate your tongues, telling how great things the Lord hath done for you. Oh, that of every professed Christian it might be said, as they who stood in the porch said to Peter, Surely thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech agreeth thereto. It is the need of the hour true witnesses to the Son of God, and many that are now in sin will be shortly saved if only those who know the grace of God would tell the truth of His power to save.
V. H. Oswald, once superintendent of the Rescue Mission work in Dubuque, Iowa, went into a saloon one night on Sixth Street of that city to get a drink of liquor; and lo, there he met S. B. Thomas, a Christian man who had given his testimonies to the patrons of the saloon and was now praying for them. Seeing Oswald come in, he went up to him and said, God can bless you, young man. The Spirit took that sentence and sealed it to Oswalds salvation, and later he preached the Gospel and told that same precious truth to others. Oh, that men would witness to the truth that Christ saves!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Exo. 20:16
THE NINTH COMMANDMENT: THE POWER OF THE TONGUE FOR EVIL
Human codes take cognisance of theft and of murder, and seek to repress them by severe punishment; but they do not punish for theft and murder committed by the tongue. We acknowledge the power of the human hand, but too often forget the power for evil of the human tongue. In this the Divine code is for the most part superior to human codes. The tongue can steal and can murder. It may kill a neighbours reputation. It may rob of that the loss of which makes him poor indeed and does not enrich the thief.
I. The violation of this command destroys the witnessers moral manhood. This is a species of lying. All falsehood is base. It is the outcome of baseness. and increases the baseness. Every man who bears false witness does himself more moral damage than he does to the neighbour of whom the false testimony is given.
II. The violation of this command does injustice to our neighbour. It may do him no moral harm, but does him great social damage. It places him in a false position. The court may disbelieve and reject the false testimony, but the man has been injured by being subjected to an examination. It is extremely difficult for a man to clear away all the dirt which has been thrown by the false-witness bearer. Many a mans reputation has been darkened all his life by the malicious tales of the bearer of false-witness.
III. The violation of this command prevents the course of justice. The administrators of law cannot move with certainty when witnesses are not reliable. Witnesses are not likely to tell a false tale, if appearances are not against the accused. It requires great sagacity to separate the true from the false, to get above mere appearances, and discover the correct state of the case.
IV. More generally notice that the violation of this command degrades. The tale-bearer revealeth secrets; and depraved human nature loves to hear evil secrets revealed. The slanderer may be welcomed, but is not respected. And ultimately his tales are received with suspicion. He is in danger of being cast out as an evil spirit. The man who to me slanders my neighbour, will in turn slander me to my neighbour; and if we are wise we shall not lend him our ears.
V. The violation of this command robs the slanderer of his capital. In modern society especially reputation is as much capital as the current coin of the realm. It is true that character remains when reputation is destroyed. This may be some consolation to the man sitting amid the ruins; but when reputation is gone a mans social position is gone. It may also be true that a mans well-known character will tend to preserve his reputation; but if sufficient dirt is thrown some of it is sure to stick. Slanderers are the bane of society. What suffering they inflict! They have embittered the lives of the purest and the holiest. We must pray God to hide us safe in His pavilion from the strife of unruly tongues.W. Burrows, B.A.
Bearing false witness covers the whole case of those sins which transgress more or less of the whole truth; and one who fails in a given case to tell the whole truth is more or less amenable to this law. Observe apart from deliberate lying
I. That we may bear false witness by equivocation.
II. That we may bear false witness by the suppression of any essential element that goes to make up the whole truth; e.g., in revealing an incident which affects our neighbours character.
III. That we may bear false witness by putting a wrong connection on and giving a wrong emphasis to the words of another.
IV. That we may bear false witness without the utterance of a word.
(1.) By neglecting to defend a slandered character, silence implying consent.
(2.) By a shrug of the shoulders, a compression of the lips, a motion of the hand, is quite enough to ruin a reputation or a soul. To avoid this and its heavy condemnation; (i.) Seek to become like Him who is the Truth; (ii.) be open and candid in all your ways; and (iii.) give others credit for what you demand for yourself.J. W. Burn.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
THE REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
False-Witness! Exo. 20:16. This commandment requires us to keep our tongues from evil-speaking, lying, and slandering. In the garden of Eden, Satan bore false witness against God by telling Eve that she would not die if she ate of the forbidden fruit. Every one, therefore, who lies, slanders, or speaks evil of his neighbour, is becoming like Satan. It is said that there is one place in India where, when a person is found guilty of false witness, he is taken to a public place, and in the presence of a multitude of people his mouth is sewed up. It is to be feared that such a penalty inflicted impartially on such offenders in England would produce startling stillness of speech. Still greater would be the silence, were the mouths of all who gave ear
With greediness, or wittingly their tongues
Made herald to his lies, around him sewed.
Pollock.
Scandal-Seed! Exo. 20:16. The story is told of a woman who freely used her tongue to the scandal of others, and made confessions to the priest of what she had done. He gave her a ripe thistle-top, and told her to go out in various directions and scatter the seeds one by one. Wondering at the penance, she obeyed, and returned and told her confessor. To her amazement, he bade her go back and gather the scattered seeds; and when she objected that it would be impossible, he replied that it would be still more difficult to gather up and destroy all the evil reports she had circulated about others. Any thoughtless, careless child, can scatter a handful of thistle-seeds before the wind in a moment, but the strongest and wisest man cannot gather them again. And the thistle-seeds need not be of the tongue. False witness is too often borne by
The hint malevolent, the look oblique,
The obvious satire, or implied dislike,
The sneer equivocal, the harsh reply,
And all the cruel language of the eye.
More.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(16) Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.Our fourth duty to our neighbour is not to injure his character. Our great poet has said
Who steals my purse, steals trash,
But he who filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
Yet leaves me poor indeed,
Thus indicating the fact that calumny may injure a man more than robbery. False witness is, of course, worst when given in a court of justice; and this offence has generally been made punishable by law. It was peculiar to the Hebrew legislation that it not only forbade and punished (Deu. 19:16-20) false testimony of this extreme kind, but denounced also the far commoner, yet scarcely less injurious, practice of spreading untrue reports about others, thus injuring them in mens esteem. The ninth commandment is broad enough in its terms to cover both forms of the sin, though pointing especially to the form which is of the more heinous character. Lest its wider bearing should be overlooked, the Divine legislator added later a distinct prohibition of calumny in the words. Thou shalt not raise a false report (Exo. 23:1).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE NINTH COMMANDMENT, Exo 20:16.
16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour The law which guards the property of a man is appropriately followed by one which guards his good name . it concerns the words rather than deeds or acts of men . The most direct and flagrant example is that of one who swears to a known falsehood before a judicial tribunal . This is perjury, and is properly punishable as a great crime . Comp . Deu 19:16-19. But this law also comprehends such whispering, slandering, backbiting, lying, and evil speaking generally as is contemplated in Lev 19:16: “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people;” also Exo 20:11 of the same chapter: “Ye shall not lie one to another . ” “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord . ” Pro 12:22. It is a high and holy law which requires us “to speak evil of no man,” (Tit 3:2,) and to put away from us “all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, with all malice . ” Eph 4:31. Comp . also Jas 4:11. Only when it is necessary to defend innocence and promote the public good should one bear true testimony against his fellow-man to blight his character and expose his wrong; but never should one, at any place or under any circumstances, utter a false word against him. Jehovah abhors the deceitful man as he does those who are guilty of capital crime. Psa 5:6.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 20:16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour A further security is here given to man’s life and property (of which reputation may well be esteemed a considerable part) by forbidding the sin of bearing false testimony against another; either by the highest and most atrocious act of it in a court of judicature, which includes the sin of perjury, or by any other method of impugning and injuring reputation. See Deu 19:16; Deu 19:21. Lev 19:16. Mat 7:1; Mat 7:29. How far the appellation of neighbour extends, even to all mankind, our Saviour has shewn, Luk 10:29; Luk 10:42.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
This is the ninth commandment. This is violated as well by speaking falsely and unjustly of our neighbour, as by witnessing to such things. What a beautiful picture is drawn of the man that hath grace to live up to this precept. Psa 15 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
XXI
THE DECALOGUE THE NINTH COMMANDMENT
Exo 20:16
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exo 20:16 ).
1. As an introduction to this commandment, what two antagonistic forms rise up before us?
Ans. Jesus, the Son of God, and the devil.
2. Show their respective relations to this commandment.
Ans. All obedience to this commandment is inspired by Christ; all disobedience is inspired by the devil.
3. What great titles of the Son of God bearing on this commandment?
Ans. He is called the “Logos,” the Word of God, the True Witness, The Truth, as, “I am the Truth.”
4. What titles of Satan bearing on it?
Ans. “The Devil,” which is translated from the Greek diabolos, and means a calumniator, a slanderer, an accuser, a false witness; he is also called a liar, and the “Father of Lies.” Jesus calls him that in Joh 8:44 . I therefore consider it very important that we shall notice the relation of Jesus and the devil to this commandment.
5. What gift of the Creator to man which, next to his spiritual nature, most distinguishes him from the brute?
Ans. The gift of speech, to talk, to witness.
6. What and why the two miracles of exception?
Ans. On one occasion God endowed a dumb brute with the power of speech in order to convey the truth to a prophet who was going astray [Balaam]. Another exception: the devil conferred the power of speech upon the serpent in order to make Eve bear false witness against God and against man.
7. What is the true office of words?
Ans. Words are (1) signs of ideas, and are intended (2) to reveal the inward nature of the speaker, just as “Jesus, the Logos,” the True Witness. Thus Jesus was to reveal the inward nature of God to man; his witness concerning God was true; there was no falsehood in him, but the devil’s witness concerning God was false.
8. According to the Italian diplomat, Machiavelli, what is their true office?
Ans. To conceal ideas and to hide what is on the inside.
9. What sins may be committed by words?
Ans. Blasphemy, that is, to speak evil of God; sacrilege, that is, an offense against God; perjury, to bear false witness in the limited, legal sense, to tell a lie when under oath; slander, flattery, backbiting, whispering, and everyday lying, prevarication, false suggestions, using words with double meaning, words that deceive, exaggeration, depreciation by speech, suppressive speech. Those are among the sins of evil speaking.
10. What says Jesus about words?
Ans. In Mat 12:37 : “For by thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” And “For every word (idle) that man shall speak he shall give an account in the judgment.”
11. What is the New Testament law on the use of words, and what Old Testament prayer concerning words?
Ans. The New Testament law is: (1) “Let your communications be yea, yea, and nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” (2) “Let your speech be seasoned with salt.” (3) “Speak the truth with thy neighbour . . . speaking the truth in love.” The Old Testament prayers are: (1) Psa 19 : “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Jehovah, . . .” (2) “Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips” (Psa 141:3 ).
12. Mention some biblical testimony to good words.
Ans. Isa 50:4 , has the expression: “The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of them that are taught that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary”; Psa 45:1 , makes the declaration: “I speak; my word is for a king; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer,” and . . . “Grace is poured into thy lips”; Pro 10:11 : “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life”; Pro 15:4 : “A gentle tongue is a tree of life”; Pro 16:24 : “Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones”; Pro 25:11 : “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in network of silver.”
13. Define the words: “simplicity,” “candour,” “sincerity,” as bearing on this commandment.
Ans. The word “simplicity” is derived from “simplex,” one-fold; and “duplicity” from “duplex,” twofold. A man who tells the plain truth speaks with simplicity; a man speaking with a double purpose it may be this, it may be that uses duplicity. “Candour” comes from candidas, white; a candid man is a white man, transparent; you can see through him. Therefore the appropriateness of that word “candid”; some folks are white, transparent; you can see through them. “Sincerity” is derived from the Latin word, sincer , which means “in reality”; “in truth.”
14. What says the psalmist about a deceitful tongue?
Ans. Psa 120:2 : “Deliver my soul, O Jehovah, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given unto thee, and what shall be done more unto thee, thou deceitful tongue? . . . Sharp arrows of the mighty with coals of juniper.”
15. What does James say about the tongue?
Ans. Jas 3:2-12 : “For in many things we all stumble. If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. Now if we put the horses’ bridles into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also. Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned about by a very small rudder, whither the impulse of the steersman willeth. So the tongue also is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire I And the tongue is a fire; the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind; but the tongue can no man tame; it is a restless evil, it is full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God; out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter? can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet.”
16. What says the psalmist about duplicity of speech?
Ans. Psa 55:21 : His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war: His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. And as an illustration of that, when Joab assaulted Abner he said, “How is thy health, my brother?” Then he took him by the beard as if to kiss him but smote him under the fifth rib, so that he died.
17. What says Proverbs on evil speech?
Ans. Pro 6:18-25 : “As a madman who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport? For lack of wood the fire goeth out; and where there is no whisperer, conten tion ceaseth. As coals are to hot embers, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to inflame strife. The words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels, and they go down into the innermost parts. Fervent lips and a wicked heart are like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross. He that hateth dissembleth with his lips; but he layeth up deceit within him; when he speaketh fair, believe him not; for there are seven abominations in his heart.”
18. What says Shakespeare of slander?
Ans. In Cymbeline, Act III, Scene IV, he tells of a deceived husband, who, believing his wife to be disloyal, writes his servant, accusing her of nuptial infidelity, and commands him to kill her. The servant shows the letter to the accused wife, whom he believes to be innocent. Watching the effect of the letter on her, he says: What shall I need to draw my sword? The paper Hath cut her throat already. No, ’tis slander; Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath Rides ou the posting winds, and doth belie All corners of the world; kings, queens, and states, Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave This viprous slander enters.
19. What says Plautus of talebearing, that kind of false witness?
Ans. It is in Latin: Homines qui gestant, quique auscultant crimina, Si meo aribralu liceat, omnes pendeant, Gestores linguis, auditores auribus. Those men who carry about, and those who listen to slanders, should, if I could have my way, all be hanged; the tattlers by their tongues, the listeners by their ears. I quoted that to my wife. She said: “La I If that old heathen could carry out all he wanted to, what a lot of women would be hanging up!”
20. What couplet did the great theologian, Augustine, write over his table?
Ans. Quisquis amat dictis absentum rodere vitam Hanc mensam vetitam moverit esse sibi.
A couplet translated thus: He that is wont to slander absent men May never at this table sit again. A good thing to have hanging over your table: “With such an one no, not to eat.”
21. What says Jesus of Nathanael?
Ans. “Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile.”
22. What says Shakespeare of a true man?
Ans. Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II, Scene VII: His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles; His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate; His tears, pure messengers sent from his heart; His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.
23. How did Edgar Allan Poe represent the ultimate effect of good and evil words?
Ans. I had a dream and there came to me a heavenly being. It took me on a long flight of observation; and after a while I saw an island. Oh I it was beautiful! covered with verdure; its trees blushed with flowers, and abounding through boughs were luscious fruits. Its skies were serene, birds and angels were singing there; and I said to my guide, “What is that island?” He said, “That, sir, is a good word which you kindly spoke once to a weary suffering heart, and that word went on acting, reacting and reacting, till it struck the shores of eternity; and God crystallized it into that island I” And then my guide took me until I saw another island, a horrible sight, a volcanic rock, a bare rock, sin-scarred, frigid, horrible I no grass, no flowers, no fruits, no birds; and above it the sky wag dark with ashes. And I said to my guide, “What is that?” “That is an evil word that you spoke once on earth; and it went on acting, reacting and reacting, until it struck eternity’s shores, and God crystallized it into this.
24. What does Pope say of an indirect lie? And what example of indirect false witness is given by Edward Eggleston in The Hoosier Schoolmaster?
Ans. Listen: Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike? Eggleston represents Dr. Small as bearing false witness against the Hoosier schoolmaster by silence, just lifting his eyebrows; for not speaking when he should have spoken, and by just lifting his eyebrows so as to make a false impression on the one to whom he was talking. He ruined the reputation of the schoolteacher. Shakespeare says that anyone is false who just “urns” and “erns,” or gives a shrug of the shoulders that way; it kills, and is without true speech.
25. How does the New Testament characterize evil speakers?
Ans. “Liars, slanderers, flatterers, backbiters, whisperers, idlers, busybodies,. boasters, who speak great swelling words of vanity; who in covetousness use feigned words,” and so on.
26. What does Tennyson say of a lie which is half a truth?
Ans. In “the Grandmother” he wrote: A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies; A lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright; But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.
27. If you would be strictly truthful, what part of speech must you handle carefully?
Ans. There are said to be nine parts of speech in the old grammars. One answers, “the personal pronoun I”; another, “the verb.” The correct answer is “the adjective.” Beware of the adjective, especially in the superlative degree. You can tell more lies with the adjective than with anything else, and especially if you have a very vivid imagination and are impulsive, e.g., “the greatest man in the world!” “the best man you ever saw,” and “the sweetest girl in the universe; so infinitely good.” Well, that will do.
28. Now in its fullness, what does this commandment forbid and inculcate?
Ans. Of course you can see on the face of it that it forbids, when giving evidence in a case, bearing false witness against your neighbor. But it also forbids every method of bearing false witness against a neighbor, as has been explained in these numerous examples cited. You may tell a lie on your neighbor, bear false witness against him, by a sigh, or a shrug, or even just putting your tongue out, or a kind of gesture, or a mere intonation of voice; by slandering, biting him in the back, and this sub rosa, “just between you and me,” and you lean over and whisper; that whisper starts out and grows bigger and bigger as it goes; it first says that this man got sick and threw up something that was as black as a crow; the next time he threw up a crow, and the next time he threw up two crows, and still later) three crows, and it goes on increasing that way. It forbids every kind of lie: blasphemy, sacrilege, perjury, flattery, deceiving words, distortion of meaning, using words with double meaning. You say a thing concerning a man that is capable of being understood in two contrary senses duplex words, multiplex words, insincere words, uncandid words. What now does it inculcate? Everything the opposite of this. It inculcates truth when you speak of God and man; it is expected of a witness that he be found faithful, to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, not by a shadow of wavering to convey false impression.
29. What is the legal name of bearing false witness?
Ans. Perjury, i.e., telling a lie under oath.
30. What is the triple nature of this offense?
Ans. (1) Because it was an oath to God, it is a sin against God; then (2) it is a sin against yourself; and (3) against the one whom your testimony was calculated to injure.
31. What was the Mosaic penalty for a false witness?
Ans. He must be made to suffer whatever his false testimony would have led the one to suffer had his testimony been accepted. That is the Mosaic penalty.
32. What is the New Testament penalty?
Ans. “All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.” A little girl once reading that passage read it: “All lawyers” instead of “all liars” “Hold on!” said the teacher. “Well, go on; you are not very far from it.”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Exo 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Ver. 16. Thou shalt not bear false witness. ] Neither bear it, nor hear it; raise, nor receive wrong reports of another; Deu 19:16 make a lie, nor love it when it is made. Rev 22:15 The truth must be spoken, and that in love. Doeg had a false tongue, though he spoke nothing but truth against David. Psa 120:3 See Trapp (for summary of Law) on “ Exo 20:17 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 23:6, Exo 23:7, Lev 19:11, Lev 19:16, Deu 19:15-21, 1Sa 22:8-19, 1Ki 21:10-13, Psa 15:3, Psa 101:5-7, Pro 10:18, Pro 11:13, Mat 26:59, Mat 26:60, Act 6:13, Eph 4:31, 1Ti 1:10, 2Ti 3:3, Jam 4:11
Reciprocal: Gen 39:17 – General Exo 23:1 – shalt not Deu 5:20 – General Deu 22:14 – General 2Sa 16:3 – day 2Sa 19:27 – slandered 1Ki 21:13 – the men of Belial Job 13:4 – ye are forgers Psa 27:12 – false Pro 6:19 – A false Pro 14:5 – General Pro 24:28 – not Eze 22:9 – men that carry tales Luk 3:14 – accuse Luk 19:8 – by false
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 20:16. Thou shalt not bear false witness This forbids, 1st, Speaking falsely in any matter, lying, equivocating, and any way devising and designing to deceive our neighbour. 2d, Speaking unjustly against our neighbour, to the prejudice of his reputation. And, 3d, (which is the highest offence of both these put together,) Bearing false witness against him, laying to his charge things that he knows not, either upon oath, by which the third commandment, the sixth, or eighth, as well as this, are broken, or in common converse, slandering, backbiting, tale-bearing, aggravating what is done amiss, and any way endeavouring to raise our own reputation upon the ruin of our neighbours.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
20:16 Thou shalt not bear false {m} witness against thy neighbour.
(m) But further his good name, and speak truth.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The ninth commandment 20:16
Social order depends on truthful speech (cf. Lev 19:11; Col 3:9-10).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE NINTH COMMANDMENT.
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”– Exo 20:16.
St. James called the tongue a world of iniquity. And against its lawlessness, which inflames the whole course of nature, each table of the law contains a warning. For it is equally ready to profane the name of God, and to rob our neighbour of his fair fame.
Jesus Christ regarded verbal professions as a very poor thing, and asked, “Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I command you?” He aimed a parable at the hollowness of merely saying, “I go, sir.” But, worthless though such phrases be, the act which substitutes professions for actual service is no trifle; and our Lord felt the importance of words, empty or sincere, so profoundly as to stake upon this one test the eternal destinies of His people: “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Now, the tongue is thus important because it is so prompt and willing a servant of the mind within. We scarcely think of it as a servant at all: our words do not seem to be more than “expressions,” manifestations of what is within us.
But a thought, once expressed, is transformed and energetic as a bullet when the charge is fired; it modifies other minds, and the word which we took to be far less potent than a deed becomes the mover of the fateful deeds of many men. And thus, being at once powerful and unsuspected, it is the most treacherous and subtle of all the forces which we wield.
And the ninth commandment does not undertake to bridle it by merely forbidding us in a court of justice to wrong our fellow-man by perjury.
We transgress it whenever we conceive a strong suspicion and repeat it as a thing we know; when we allow the temptation of a biting epigram to betray us into an unkind expression not quite warranted by the facts; when we vindicate ourselves against a charge by throwing blame where it probably but not certainly ought to lie; or when we are not content to vindicate ourselves without bringing a countercharge which it would perplex us to be asked to prove; when we give way to that most shallow and meanest of all attempts at cleverness which claims credit for penetration because it can discover base motives for innocent actions, so that high-mindedness becomes pride, and charity withers up into love of patronising, and forbearance shrivels into lack of spirit. The pattern and ideal of such cleverness is the east wind, which makes all that is fair and sensitive to shut itself up, forbids the bud to expand into a blossom, and puts back the coming of the springtime and of the singing bird.
There are very gifted persons who have never found out that a kindly and winning phrase may have as much literary merit as a stinging one, and it is quite as fine a thing to be like the dew on Hermon on as to shoot out arrows, even bitter words.
It is a pity that our harsh judgments always speak more loudly and confidently than our kindly ones, but the reason is plain: angry passion prompts the former, and its voice is loud; while the calm reflection which tones down and sweetens the judgment softens also the expression of it.
It has to be remembered, also, that false witness can reach to nations, organisations, political movements as well as individuals. The habit of putting the worst construction upon the intentions of foreign powers is what feeds the mutual jealousies that ultimately blaze out in war. The habit of thinking of rival politicians as deliberately false and treasonable is what lowers the standard of the noblest of secular pursuits, until each party, not to be undone, protests too much, raises its voice to a falsetto to scream its rival down, and relaxes its standard of righteousness lest it should be outdone by the unscrupulousness of its rival.
And there is yet another neighbour, against whom false witness is woefully rife, both in the Church and in society. That neighbour is mankind at large. There is a prevalent theory of human sinfulness which unconsciously scoffs at the appeals of the gospel, striving indeed to influence me by love, gratitude, admiration for the Perfect One, and desire to be like Him, by the hope of holiness and the shame of vileness, but telling me at the same time that I have no sympathies whatever except with evil. The observation of every day shows that man’s nature is corrupt, but it also shows that he is not a fiend–that he has fallen indeed, but remembers yet in what image he was made. But the world cannot upbraid the Church for these exaggerations, since they are but the echo of its own.
“I do believe, Though I have found them not, that there may be
Words which are things, hopes which will not deceive,
And virtues which are merciful, nor weave
Snares for the failing; I would also deem
O’er others’ griefs that some sincerely grieve;
That two, or one, are almost what they seem,
That goodness is no name, and happiness no dream.”
Childe Harold, III., cxiv.
Cynicism is false witness; and if it does not greatly wrong any one of our fellow-men, it injures both society and the cynic. If he is of a coarse fibre, it excuses him to himself in becoming the hard and unloving creature which he fancies that all men are. If he is too proud or too self-respecting to yield to this temptation, it isolates him, it chills and withers his sympathies for people quite as good as himself, whom he thinks of as the herd.
As for the more flagrant sins, so for this, the remedy is love. Love sympathises, makes allowance for frailty, discovers the germs of good, hopeth all things, taketh not account of evil.