Exodus 20:16
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
American King James Version (AKJV)
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Do not give false witness against your neighbour.
Webster's Revision
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
World English Bible
"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Clarke's Exodus 20:16 Bible Commentary
Thou shalt not bear false witness, etc. - Not only false oaths, to deprive a man of his life or of his right, are here prohibited, but all whispering, tale-bearing, slander, and calumny; in a word, whatever is deposed as a truth, which is false in fact, and tends to injure another in his goods, person, or character, is against the spirit and letter of this law. Suppressing the truth when known, by which a person may be defrauded of his property or his good name, or lie under injuries or disabilities which a discovery of the truth would have prevented, is also a crime against this law. He who bears a false testimony against or belies even the devil himself, comes under the curse of this law, because his testimony is false. By the term neighbor any human being is intended, whether he rank among our enemies or friends.
Wesley's Exodus 20:16 Bible Commentary
20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness — This forbids, 1. Speaking falsely in any matter, lying, equivocating, and any way devising and designing to deceive our neighbour. 2. Speaking unjustly against our neighbour, to the prejudice of his reputation; And 3. (which is the highest offence of both these kinds put together) Bearing false witness against him, laying to his charge things that he knows not, either upon oath, by which the third commandment, the sixth or eighth, as well as this, are broken, or in common converse, slandering, backbiting, tale-bearing, aggravating what is done amiss, and any way endeavouring to raise our own reputation upon the ruin of our neighbor's.