Keluaran 23:6-7

23:6 “You must not turn away justice for your poor people in their lawsuits. 23:7 Keep your distance ¹  from a false charge ²  – do not kill the innocent and the righteous, ³  for I will not justify the wicked. ⁴ 

Imamat 19:11

Dealing Honestly

19:11 “‘You must not steal, you must not tell lies, and you must not deal falsely with your fellow citizen. ⁵ 

Imamat 19:16

19:16 You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. ⁶  You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. ⁷  I am the Lord.

Ulangan 19:15-21

19:15 A single witness may not testify ⁸  against another person for any trespass or sin that he commits. A matter may be legally established ⁹  only on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 19:16 If a false ¹⁰  witness testifies against another person and accuses him of a crime, ¹¹  19:17 then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges ¹²  who will be in office in those days. 19:18 The judges will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if the witness should prove to be false and to have given false testimony against the accused, ¹³  19:19 you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge ¹⁴  evil from among you. 19:20 The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you. 19:21 You must not show pity; the principle will be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot. ¹⁵ 

Ulangan 19:1

Laws Concerning Manslaughter

19:1 When the Lord your God destroys the nations whose land he ¹⁶  is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses,

1 Samuel 22:8-19

22:8 For all of you have conspired against me! No one informs me ¹⁷  when my own son makes an agreement with this son of Jesse! Not one of you feels sorry for me or informs me that my own son has commissioned my own servant to hide in ambush against me, as is the case today!”

22:9 But Doeg the Edomite, who had stationed himself with the servants of Saul, replied, “I saw this son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob. 22:10 He inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions. He also gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

22:11 Then the king arranged for a meeting with the priest Ahimelech son of Ahitub and all the priests of his father’s house who were at Nob. They all came to the king. 22:12 Then Saul said, “Listen, son of Ahitub.” He replied, “Here I am, my lord.” 22:13 Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and this son of Jesse? You gave ¹⁸  him bread and a sword and inquired of God on his behalf, so that he opposes ¹⁹  me and waits in ambush, as is the case today!”

22:14 Ahimelech replied to the king, “Who among all your servants is faithful like David? He is the king’s son-in-law, the leader of your bodyguard, and honored in your house! 22:15 Was it just today that I began to inquire of God on his behalf? Far be it from me! The king should not accuse ²⁰  his servant or any of my father’s house. For your servant is not aware of all this – not in whole or in part!” ²¹ 

22:16 But the king said, “You will surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house! 22:17 Then the king said to the messengers ²²  who were stationed beside him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, for they too have sided ²³  with David! They knew he was fleeing, but they did not inform me.” But the king’s servants refused to harm ²⁴  the priests of the Lord.

22:18 Then the king said to Doeg, “You turn and strike down the priests!” So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests. He killed on that day eighty-five ²⁵  men who wore the linen ephod. 22:19 As for Nob, the city of the priests, he struck down with the sword men and women, children and infants, oxen, donkeys, and sheep – all with the sword.

1 Samuel 22:1

David Goes to Adullam and Mizpah

22:1 So David left there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and the rest of his father’s family ²⁶  learned about it, they went down there to him.

Kisah Para Rasul 21:10-13

21:10 While we remained there for a number of days, ²⁷  a prophet named Agabus ²⁸  came down from Judea. 21:11 He came ²⁹  to us, took ³⁰  Paul’s belt, ³¹  tied ³²  his own hands and feet with it, ³³  and said, “The Holy Spirit says this: ‘This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will tie up the man whose belt this is, and will hand him over ³⁴  to the Gentiles.’” 21:12 When we heard this, both we and the local people ³⁵  begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 21:13 Then Paul replied, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking ³⁶  my heart? For I am ready not only to be tied up, ³⁷  but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Mazmur 15:3

15:3 He ³⁸  does not slander, ³⁹ 

or do harm to others, ⁴⁰ 

or insult his neighbor. ⁴¹ 

Mazmur 101:5-7

101:5 I will destroy anyone who slanders his neighbor in secret.

I will not tolerate anyone who has a cocky demeanor and an arrogant attitude. ⁴² 

101:6 I will favor the honest people of the land, ⁴³ 

and allow them to live with me. ⁴⁴ 

Those who walk in the way of integrity will attend me. ⁴⁵ 

101:7 Deceitful people will not live in my palace. ⁴⁶ 

Liars will not be welcome in my presence. ⁴⁷ 

Amsal 10:18

10:18 The one who conceals hatred utters lies, ⁴⁸ 

and the one who spreads ⁴⁹  slander ⁵⁰  is certainly ⁵¹  a fool.

Amsal 11:13

11:13 The one who goes about slandering others ⁵²  reveals ⁵³  secrets,

but the one who is trustworthy ⁵⁴  conceals a matter.

Matius 26:59-60

26:59 The ⁵⁵  chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were trying to find false testimony against Jesus so that they could put him to death. 26:60 But they did not find anything, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally ⁵⁶  two came forward

Kisah Para Rasul 6:13

6:13 They brought forward false witnesses who said, “This man does not stop saying things against this holy place ⁵⁷  and the law. ⁵⁸ 

Efesus 4:31

4:31 You must put away every kind of bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and evil, slanderous talk.

Efesus 4:1

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, ⁵⁹  urge you to live ⁶⁰  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, ⁶¹ 

Titus 1:10

1:10 For there are many ⁶²  rebellious people, idle talkers, and deceivers, especially those with Jewish connections, ⁶³ 

Titus 1:2

1:2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the ages began. ⁶⁴ 

Titus 3:3

3:3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another.

Yakobus 4:11

4:11 Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. ⁶⁵  He who speaks against a fellow believer ⁶⁶  or judges a fellow believer speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but its judge. ⁶⁷ 

[23:7]  ¹ tn Or “stay away from,” or “have nothing to do with.”

[23:7]  ² tn Heb “a false matter,” this expression in this context would have to be a case in law that was false or that could only be won by falsehood.

[23:7]  ³ tn The two clauses probably should be related: the getting involved in the false charge could lead to the death of an innocent person (so, e.g., Naboth in 1 Kgs 21:10-13).

[23:7]  ⁴ sn God will not declare right the one who is in the wrong. Society should also be consistent, but it cannot see the intents and motives, as God can.

[19:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “you shall not deal falsely a man with his fellow citizen.”

[19:16]  ⁶ tn The term רָכִיל (rakhil) is traditionally rendered “slanderer” here (so NASB, NIV, NRSV; see also J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 304, 316), but the exact meaning is uncertain (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129). It is sometimes related to I רָכַל (“to go about as a trader [or “merchant”]”; BDB 940 s.v. רָכַל), and taken to refer to cutthroat business dealings, but there may be a II רָכַל, the meaning of which is dubious (HALOT 1237 s.v. II *רכל). Some would render it “to go about as a spy.”

[19:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “You shall not stand on the blood of your neighbor.” This part of the verse is also difficult to interpret. The rendering here suggests that one will not allow a neighbor to be victimized, whether in court (cf. v. 15) or in any other situation (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129).

[19:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “rise up” (likewise in v. 16).

[19:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “may stand.”

[19:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “violent” (חָמָס, khamas). This is a witness whose motivation from the beginning is to do harm to the accused and who, therefore, resorts to calumny and deceit. See I. Swart and C. VanDam, NIDOTTE 2:177-80.

[19:16]  ¹¹ tn Or “rebellion.” Rebellion against God’s law is in view (cf. NAB “of a defection from the law”).

[19:17]  ¹² tn The appositional construction (“before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges”) indicates that these human agents represented the Lord himself, that is, they stood in his place (cf. Deut 16:18-20; 17:8-9).

[19:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “his brother” (also in the following verse).

[19:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you will burn out” (בִּעַרְתָּ, bi’arta). Like a cancer, unavenged sin would infect the whole community. It must, therefore, be excised by the purging out of its perpetrators who, presumably, remained unrepentant (cf. Deut 13:6; 17:7, 12; 21:21; 22:21-22, 24; 24:7).

[19:21]  ¹⁵ sn This kind of justice is commonly called lex talionis or “measure for measure” (cf. Exod 21:23-25; Lev 24:19-20). It is likely that it is the principle that is important and not always a strict application. That is, the punishment should fit the crime and it may do so by the payment of fines or other suitable and equitable compensation (cf. Exod 22:21; Num 35:31). See T. S. Frymer-Kensky, “Tit for Tat: The Principle of Equal Retribution in Near Eastern and Biblical Law,” BA 43 (1980): 230-34.

[19:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[22:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “uncovers my ear.”

[22:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “by giving.”

[22:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “rises up against.”

[22:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “set a matter against.”

[22:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “small or great.”

[22:17]  ²² tn Heb “runners.”

[22:17]  ²³ tn Heb “their hand is.”

[22:17]  ²⁴ tn Heb “to extend their hand to harm.”

[22:18]  ²⁵ tc The number is confused in the Greek ms tradition. The LXX, with the exception of the Lucianic recension, has the number 305. The Lucianic recension, along with a couple of Old Latin mss, has the number 350.

[22:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “house.”

[21:10]  ²⁷ tn BDAG 848 s.v. πολύς 1.b.α has “ἐπὶ ἡμέρας πλείους for a (large) number of days, for many days…Ac 13:31. – 21:10…24:17; 25:14; 27:20.”

[21:10]  ²⁸ sn Agabus also appeared in Acts 11:28. He was from Jerusalem, so the two churches were still in contact with one another.

[21:11]  ²⁹ tn Grk “And coming.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here. The participle ἐλθών (elqwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[21:11]  ³⁰ tn Grk “and taking.” This καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more. The participle ἄρας (aras) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[21:11]  ³¹ sn The belt was a band or sash used to keep money as well as to gird up the tunic (BDAG 431 s.v. ζώνη).

[21:11]  ³² tn The participle δήσας (dhsas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[21:11]  ³³ tn The words “with it” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[21:11]  ³⁴ tn Grk “and will deliver him over into the hands of” (a Semitic idiom).

[21:11]  sn The Jews…will tie up…and will hand him over. As later events will show, the Jews in Jerusalem did not personally tie Paul up and hand him over to the Gentiles, but their reaction to him was the cause of his arrest (Acts 21:27-36).

[21:12]  ³⁵ tn Or “the people there.”

[21:13]  ³⁶ tn The term translated “breaking” as used by Josephus (Ant. 10.10.4 [10.207]) means to break something into pieces, but in its only NT use (it is a hapax legomenon) it is used figuratively (BDAG 972 s.v. συνθρύπτω).

[21:13]  ³⁷ tn L&N 18.13 has “to tie objects together – ‘to tie, to tie together, to tie up.’” The verb δέω (dew) is sometimes figurative for imprisonment (L&N 37.114), but it is preferable to translate it literally here in light of v. 11 where Agabus tied himself up with Paul’s belt.

[15:3]  ³⁸ sn Hebrew literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age.

[15:3]  ³⁹ tn Heb “he does not slander upon his tongue.” For another example of רָגַל (ragal, “slander”) see 2 Sam 19:28.

[15:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “his fellow.”

[15:3]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and he does not lift up an insult against one who is near to him.”

[101:5]  ⁴² tn Heb “[one who has] pride of eyes and wideness [i.e., arrogance] of heart, him I will not endure.”

[101:6]  ⁴³ tn Heb “my eyes [are] on the faithful of the land.”

[101:6]  ⁴⁴ tn The Hebrew text simply reads, “in order to live with me.”

[101:6]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “one who walks in the way of integrity, he will minister to me.”

[101:7]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “he will not live in the midst of my house, one who does deceit.”

[101:7]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “one who speaks lies will not be established before my eyes.”

[10:18]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “lips of falsehood.” The genitive noun שָׁקֶר (shaqer, “falsehood”) functions as an attributive genitive. The noun “lips” is a metonymy of cause for speech produced by lips. The one who shows friendliness while concealing hatred is a liar (e.g., Ps 28:3).

[10:18]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “causes to go out.” The Hiphil of יָצָא (yatsa) literally means “to cause to go out” (BDB 424 s.v. Hiph.1). This may refer to speech (“to utter”) in the sense of causing words to go out of one’s mouth, or it may refer to slander (“to spread”) in the sense of causing slander to go out to others.

[10:18]  ⁵⁰ tn The word דִבָּה (dibbah) means “whispering; defamation; evil report” (BDB 179 s.v.). Cf. NAB “accusations”; TEV “gossip.”

[10:18]  sn The one who spreads slander is a fool because it not only destroys others but comes back on the guilty. See also the sayings of Amenemope and Ahiqar on these subjects (ANET 423, 429).

[10:18]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “he is a fool.” The independent personal pronoun הוּא (hu’, “he”) is used for emphasis. This is reflected in the translation as “certainly.”

[11:13]  ⁵² tn Heb “going about in slander.” This expression refers to a slanderer. The noun means “slander” and so “tale-bearer” (so KJV, ASV, NASB), “informer.” The related verb (רָכַל, rakhal) means “to go about” from one person to another, either for trade or for gossip.

[11:13]  ⁵³ tn The participle מְגַלֶּה (mÿgaleh) means “uncovering” or “revealing” secrets.

[11:13]  sn This is the intent of a person who makes disparaging comments about others – he cannot wait to share secrets that should be kept.

[11:13]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “faithful of spirit.” This phrase describes the inner nature of the person as faithful and trustworthy. This individual will not rush out to tell whatever information he has heard, but will conceal it.

[26:59]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “Now the.” Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[26:60]  ⁵⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[6:13]  ⁵⁷ sn This holy place is a reference to the temple.

[6:13]  ⁵⁸ sn The law refers to the law of Moses. It elaborates the nature of the blasphemy in v. 11. To speak against God’s law in Torah was to blaspheme God (Deut 28:15-19). On the Jewish view of false witnesses, see Exod 19:16-18; 20:16; m. Sanhedrin 3.6; 5.1-5. Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 may indicate why the temple was mentioned.

[4:1]  ⁵⁹ tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

[4:1]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[4:1]  ⁶¹ sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.

[1:10]  ⁶² tc ‡ The earliest and best mss lack καί (kai) after πολλοί (polloi; so א A C P 088 81 104 365 614 629 630 al sy co), though the conjunction is found in several significant witnesses, chiefly of the Western and Byzantine texts (D F G I Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï lat). Although it is possible that some scribes omitted the word, thinking it was superfluous, it is also possible that others added the conjunction for clarification. Judging by the pedigree of the witnesses and the inconclusiveness of the internal evidence, the shorter reading is considered to be most likely original. NA²⁷ puts the conjunction in brackets, indicating some doubts as to its authenticity.

[1:10]  ⁶³ tn Grk “those of the circumcision.” Some translations take this to refer to Jewish converts to Christianity (cf. NAB “Jewish Christians”; TEV “converts from Judaism”; CEV “Jewish followers”) while others are less clear (cf. NLT “those who insist on circumcision for salvation”).

[1:2]  ⁶⁴ tn Grk “before eternal ages.”

[4:11]  ⁶⁵ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[4:11]  ⁶⁶ tn See note on the word “believer” in 1:9.

[4:11]  ⁶⁷ tn Grk “a judge.”