Leviticus 5:1

1 "'If a person who is a witness, sworn to testify, sins by refusing to tell what he has seen or heard about the matter, he must bear the consequences.

Leviticus 5:1 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 5:1

And if a soul sin
The soul is put for the person, and is particularly mentioned, as Ben Melech says, because possessed of will and desire:

and hear the voice of swearing;
or cursing, or adjuration; not of profane swearing, and taking the name of God in vain, but either of false swearing, or perjury, as when a man hears another swear to a thing which he knows is false; or else of adjuration, either the voice of a magistrate or of a neighbour adjuring another, calling upon him with an oath to bear testimony in such a case; this is what the Jews

---

FOOTNOTES:

F18 call the oath of testimony or witness, and which they say ^F19 is binding in whatsoever language it is heard:

and is a witness;
is able to bear witness to the thing he is adjured about:

whether he hath seen or known of it;
what he has seen with his eyes, or knows by any means: of such a case, the Jews observe ^F20, that there may be seeing without knowing, or knowing without seeing, and in either case a man ought to bear witness:

if he do not utter it;
tell the truth, declare what he has seen or known:

then he shall bear his iniquity;
he shall be charged with sin, and be obliged to acknowledge his offence, and bring a trespass offering for it: it is said ^F21, that the witnesses are not guilty of the oath of the testimony, but in these ten cases; if they are required; if the testimony is concerning goods; if the goods are movable; if he that requires binds himself to pay for their testimony only, in case they bear witness; if they refuse after required; if they refuse in the sanhedrim; if the adjuration or oath is made there by the name of God, or his titles; if knowledge of the testimony goes before the oath; if he particularizes his witnesses in the time of the oath, or at the time of the requirement; and if the oath is in a language they understood.

F18 Misn. Sotah, c. 7. 1.
F19 Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 33. 1.
F20 T. Bab. Shebuot, fol. 33. 2. & 34. 1.
F21 Maimon. Hilchot, Shebuot, c. 9. sect. 3.

Leviticus 5:1 In-Context

1 "'If a person who is a witness, sworn to testify, sins by refusing to tell what he has seen or heard about the matter, he must bear the consequences.

2 If a person touches something unclean, whether the carcass of an unclean wild animal, a domestic animal or a reptile, he is guilty, even though he may not be aware that he is unclean.

3 If he touches some human uncleanness, no matter what the source of his uncleanness is, and is unaware of it, then, when he learns of it, he is guilty.

4 If someone allows to slip from his mouth an oath to do evil or to do good, and he doesn't remember that he clearly spoke this oath, then, no matter what it was about, when he learns of it, he is guilty.

5 A person guilty of any of these things is to confess in what manner he sinned