Leviticus 5:1

1 `And when a person doth sin, and hath heard the voice of an oath, and he [is] witness, or hath seen, or hath known -- if he declare not, then he hath borne his iniquity:

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

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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 `And when a person doth sin, and hath heard the voice of an oath, and he [is] witness, or hath seen, or hath known -- if he declare not, then he hath borne his iniquity:

2 `Or when a person cometh against any thing unclean, or against a carcase of an unclean beast, or against a carcase of unclean cattle, or against a carcase of an unclean teeming creature, and it hath been hidden from him, and he unclean, and guilty;

3 `Or when he cometh against uncleanness of man, even any of his uncleanness whereby he is unclean, and it hath been hidden from him, and he hath known, and hath been guilty:

4 `Or when a person sweareth, speaking wrongfully with the lips to do evil, or to do good, even anything which man speaketh wrongfully with an oath, and it hath been hid from him; -- when he hath known then he hath been guilty of one of these;

5 `And it hath been when he is guilty of one of these, that he hath confessed concerning that which he hath sinned,