Keluaran 20:16

20:16 “You shall not give ¹  false testimony ²  against your neighbor.

Ulangan 5:20

5:20 You must not offer false testimony against another. ³ 

Ulangan 19:16-21

19:16 If a false ⁴  witness testifies against another person and accuses him of a crime, ⁵  19:17 then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges ⁶  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, ⁷  19:19 you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge ⁸  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. ⁹ 

Mazmur 27:12

27:12 Do not turn me over to my enemies, ¹⁰ 

for false witnesses who want to destroy me testify against me. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 35:11

35:11 Violent men perjure themselves, ¹² 

and falsely accuse me. ¹³ 

Amsal 19:5

19:5 A false witness ¹⁴  will not go unpunished,

and the one who spouts out ¹⁵  lies will not escape punishment. ¹⁶ 

Kisah Para Rasul 6:11

6:11 Then they secretly instigated ¹⁷  some men to say, “We have heard this man ¹⁸  speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

[20:16]  ¹ tn Heb “answer” as in a court of law.

[20:16]  ² tn The expression עֵד שָׁקֶר (’ed shaqer) means “a lying witness” (B. S. Childs, Exodus [OTL], 388). In this verse the noun is an adverbial accusative, “you will not answer as a lying witness.” The prohibition is against perjury. While the precise reference would be to legal proceedings, the law probably had a broader application to lying about other people in general (see Lev 5:1; Hos 4:2).

[5:20]  ³ tn Heb “your neighbor.” Clearly this is intended generically, however, and not to be limited only to those persons who live nearby (frequently the way “neighbor” is understood in contemporary contexts). So also in v. 20.

[19:16]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Or “rebellion.” Rebellion against God’s law is in view (cf. NAB “of a defection from the law”).

[19:17]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “his brother” (also in the following verse).

[19:19]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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.

[27:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “do not give me over to the desire of my enemies.”

[27:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for they have risen up against me, lying witnesses and a testifier of violence.” The form יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) is traditionally understood as a verb meaning “snort, breathe out”: “for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty” (KJV; cf. BDB 422 s.v.). A better option is to take the form as a noun meaning “a witness” (or “testifier”). See Prov 6:19; 12:17; 14:5, 25; 19:5, 9, and Hab 2:3.

[35:11]  ¹² tn Heb “witnesses of violence rise up.”

[35:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “[that] which I do not know they ask me.”

[19:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a witness of lies.” This expression is an attributive genitive: “a lying witness” (cf. CEV “dishonest witnesses”). This is paralleled by “the one who pours out lies.”

[19:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “breathes out”; NAB “utters”; NIV “pours out.”

[19:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “will not escape” (so NAB, NASB); NIV “will not go free.” Here “punishment” is implied, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:5]  sn This proverb is a general statement, because on occasion there are false witnesses who go unpunished in this life (e.g., Prov 6:19; 14:5, 25; 19:9). The Talmud affirms, “False witnesses are contemptible even to those who hire them” (b. Sanhedrin 29b).

[6:11]  ¹⁷ tn Another translation would be “they suborned” (but this term is not in common usage). “Instigate (secretly), suborn” is given by BDAG 1036 s.v. ὑποβάλλω.

[6:11]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “heard him”; but since this is direct discourse, it is more natural (and clearer) to specify the referent (Stephen) as “this man.”