Proverbs 24:28

28 ¹Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips.

Proverbs 24:28 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 24:28

Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause
Unless forced unto it, except there is some urgent reason for it; not upon any trivial account, or in any frivolous matter; never appear forward and eager to bear witness against him, and, whenever obliged to it, be not a false witness, but speak truth, whether thy neighbour be a friend or a foe; and deceive [not] with thy lips;
by bearing a false testimony, the judge, thy neighbour and thyself; for though men may be deceived, God cannot: or, shouldest thou do so, "thou wouldest break" and cut him to pieces "with thy lips" ^F24; which is the sense of the words according to R. Judah, as Ben Melech relates.

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 (Kytpvb tytyphw) "et ne atteras labiis tuis", Vatablus; "et ne comminuas eum labiis tuis", Syriac version.

Proverbs 24:28 In-Context

26 Whoever gives an honest answer kisses the lips.

27 Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.

28 Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips.

29 Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done. ”

30 I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,

Cross References

• 1. 24:28 [ch. 25:18]