Proverbs 24:28

28 Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause, For would you 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 He who gives a right answer kisses the lips.

27 Prepare your outside work, Make it fit for yourself in the field; And afterward build your house.

28 Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause, For would you deceive with your lips?

29 Do not say, "I will do to him just as he has done to me; I will render to the man according to his work."

30 I went by the field of the lazy man, And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;

Footnotes

• [a]. Septuagint and Vulgate read Do not deceive.