BibleProject - 9th Commandment: Do Not Bear False Witness

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

The 10 Commandments E12 — The common summary of the 9th Commandment is “Do not lie,” a generic prohibition against all kinds of fibs. But the commandment actually reads “Do not bear false witness,” drawing attention to a very specific kind of lying in a communal, legal setting. Many of the other commandments are more general. So why does the 9th Commandment zoom in on truth telling in public, legal settings? In this episode, Jon and Tim explore the 9th Commandment, discovering its underlying value of upholding truth and justice in defense of the most vulnerable in society. FULL SHOW NOTES For chapter-by-chapter summaries, biblical words, referenced Scriptures, and reflection questions, check out the full show notes for this episode. CHAPTERS Meanings of “Bearing Witness” and “False” (0:00-23:51) Case Studies in the 42 Commands (23:51-38:07) The Value Beneath the Command (38:07-49:02) OFFICIAL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT View this episode’s official transcript. THE 10 COMMANDMENTS BIBLEPROJECT TRANSLATION View our full translation of the 10 Commandments. REFERENCED RESOURCES Find the related animated video for this episode here. Check out Tim’s extensive collection of recommended books. SHOW MUSIC “Church Pews feat. Oly.Lo & wisdm” by Lofi Sunday “Yo” by Lofi Sunday, Just Derrick BibleProject theme song by TENTS SHOW CREDITS Production of today’s episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Tyler Bailey and Aaron Olsen edited today’s episode and provided the sound design and mix. JB Witty writes the show notes. Our host and creative director is Jon Collins, and our lead scholar is Tim Mackie. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Don't lie. This is something we learn at a very early age. Lies are bad. Lies erode trust. Lies can cause harm. Don't lie. Not lying is so important we think this is what the ninth command is. Do not lie. But interestingly, that isn't actually the command. The way we normally summarize the meaning of the ninth commandment is we flatten it out. Don't lie. But instead, you will not bear false witness against your neighbor. Do not bear false witness? What does that mean?

This is a fixed little phrase used to refer specifically to legally or publicly making a declaration. So bear false witness is specifically about twisting or manipulating the truth in a communal legal setting. It's really specific. And honestly, it kind of sticks out alongside these more general commands, don't kill, don't steal. Why is it so specific? The biblical authors have this conviction that when, Truth is misrepresented in the one place where the truth is the most at stake in a public way. It results in violence towards most vulnerable.

Because who tends to suffer get the most taken advantage of when people bend the truth in legal settings? Often it's people who are in vulnerable social and economic positions. In this series, we talk about how the Ten Commandments are words of wisdom that lead to life and flourishing. And we often see this when we flip over the commandments. into a positive. And so flip over, do not bear false witness. And what do we get? Hold up and celebrate and reinforce the value of truth telling in our public setting. That is what's at stake in the 9th command. Do not bear false witness. That's what's on the docket today. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Hey, Tim. Hello, John Collins.

Hello, we are looking at the 10 commandments. We are nearing almost the end. We are command number 9. of the 10. Nine of 10 is today. That's today. As we've gone through them, we have been trying to discern what is the, not just the meaning or implication

of each of the 10 commands, but what is the value underneath them? What's the deeper value and the deeper wisdom? And in a way, we're trying to learn from Rabbi Jesus about how he saw expansive, deep,

divine wisdom in the commandments. He even quoted from the Ten Commandments. And saw things in them that we may not normally see. So we're going to take that same approach today, looking at the Knight's Command, which is about lying and truth-telling. That's the topic addressed here. And we're going to find this is actually a major theme

in the laws elsewhere in the Torah, but also in the narratives and public. poems, lying and truth-telling is a big deal in the Bible. Can we situate ourselves where we're at in the 10? It's great. The 10 have formed a shape in my mind. Good. Yeah, great. Because we've talked about the beginning, 1 through 4, our relationship with God.

Which is no idols, no other gods, don't carry the name of God in vain, and then remember the Sabbath. Yeah. And then 5 becomes this hinge, how you use. treat your parents is in some way how you relate to God. I end up with how you relate to God, yeah. But then it's a shift on how you treat other humans. Yep. So Command 6 through 10 are all really specifically focused on me and my neighbor.

Don't kill, don't commit adultery, don't steal. How I relate to my neighbor's life, their spouse, and their stuff. 6, 7, and 8. 6.7 and 8. Number 9, you will not bear false witness against your neighbor. And then, number 10, then having brought up the word neighbor is going to be you will not desire your neighbor's house or your neighbor's wife. And it gives a list of all these things that belong to your neighbor. So, yeah, 6 through 10 are all bound together very clearly and specifically about how you relate to your neighbor.

And this one, number nine, specifically is bearing false witness against. You will not bear false witness against your neighbor. So we're talking here about whether or not I live in my community as someone who values the truth and protect the truth and help prevent false representation of the truth in my community. That matters. That's a part of neighborly flourishing. Yeah. So maybe the easiest way in is how to translate this command. It's really interesting. So there are other words for lie.

The main one in Hebrew is Kazav is the verb. That would be more general. Don't lie. Okay. Why isn't it just... Don't tell lies. Yeah, Lotexov. Don't lie.

But instead, it's bearing false witness, which is a specific kind of lying. The word bear witness actually points. to a really specific social situation, namely standing in a court before judges or maybe a jury. So here in the command, it's Ta'enna. It's from the Hebrew verb, Anah, which just means to, like, answer or respond. Like, it's a real common phrase in Hebrew to say,

and he answered, saying, and then to begin a quote. Okay, like in a book, it's like, and he said. Mm-hmm, yeah. So when you, Anna, you. are responding verbally to something that somebody said or did to you. Would this be the word in the Psalms where I cried out to God and he answered me? Oh, yes. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, regularly. Mm-hmm. And then when you have this verb, anna, with a certain preposition marking the object, the bait preposition. The bait proposition? Yeah, it was the letter bait.

What does that even mean? Oh, yeah. Okay. So in English, prepositions are themselves. Let's pretend I don't know what a preposition is. Oh, got it. What's so funny is it's hard to describe abstractly. But if I say the group of words,

with, by, on, under, next to. So they describe something's physical location. Okay. Or the spatial relationship between two things. The relationship work. Yeah, it refers to a space relationship. I am with you. I am over you.

You are under the desk. That kind of thing. That's preposition. Pre-position. Oh, positions in the word. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. But in Hebrew, prepositions are not always separate words. Some are.

Okay. But there's a whole group of prepositions where it's a letter that you stick on to the beginning of the word that you want to mark it with. So in Hebrew, you would say, I am with the table. You would say, I am buttable. Okay. You just put the B. So the B is with. The B, yeah.

In batable. I am bettable. I kind of like that. So the whole point is, it's a fixed little phrase. And to respond with the bait preposition is used to refer specifically to like, legally or publicly making a declaration. Here, let's just look at some examples, and it'll become clear.

So in the book of Samuel, there's a story about how Samuel, he's a prophet, a great prophet and priest figure. He's been leading the people, but the people of Israel want a king. They want somebody who will go fight battles for them and be like a king like the other nations. And so Samuel's, what do you say?

He's miffed. He's a little insulted. When he hands over leadership to this king, who saw, he gives this long speech. And he says, okay, I'm signing off, leadership here. Here I am. Anybody around bear witness about me. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken?

Did I defraud anybody? Who have I oppressed? Whose hand have I taken a bribe from to blind my eyes? So he's essentially saying, look, I've done right by you all. And if there's anybody who thinks I've done wrong against them, and then he uses this phrase, bear witness, and then the bait preposition connected to the word me. Okay. So literally ways he says is respond to me. Yeah.

But when he then brings up all of these, whose ox have I taken, whose donkey have I taken? He's asking them to bring a legal charge. And he knows that nobody can Because he's done right by them So how you bring an official charge Or bear witness in a public way To represent a claim about somebody You use this phrase, bearing witness

Because literally this phrase you could say is Say against me Say about me Or say about me Respond, yeah, with regard to me Okay And we would use the phrase bear witness

because it's usually in a setting of make an accusation that we can all decide if it's true or not. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, here's a couple other examples. Isaiah 59, our transgressions, oh God, are multiplied before you,

our sins, bear witness about us. And that's the word there. Yeah, or testify. I mean, again, it's hard to put into English, really, because what it literally is is our sins, respond with regard to us. Yeah, okay.

But that's just a figure of speech. Yeah. To figure a speech for when you are making an accusation or a public declaration. Yeah. A public claim. Public claim. Yeah, it's almost like an open letter. The concept of an open letter.

Okay. Or a whistleblower moment. You're going public and claiming something about another person. Okay. That's it. All right. It's what this. phrase means. Okay. So,

again, back to the Ninth Command, you will not bear witness, and then the kind of witness that you are bearing is false, is how it gets translated. Let's talk about this word false. This is, I don't know why I like this word, but it's a really interesting word. The word false, in false witness,

is the Hebrew word shecker. Shecker. Shecker. It's just fun to say. Shecker. It's used 113 times in the Hebrew Bible. That's a lot? It's a lot of Shecker. Yeah. So let's just look at some examples

before I try and give an abstract definition. Here's one from Psalm 33, verse 16. A king is not saved by a mighty army, and a warrior is not delivered by great strength. a horse is a shecker for victory. It cannot deliver anyone by its great strength. A horse is shecker. Okay.

In this context, it's unable to give you victory. So it's inadequate. Yeah, but why I read kind of the lines around it was that seems kind of counter. It is counter. To normal experience. Yeah. Yeah, if you have a horse in battle and the other person doesn't have a horse, you're going to win that battle. Totally, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But in the context of the Psalm, it's going to say like, but kings will let you down, warriors let you down. A horse is going to let you down. In other words, a horse is normally a sign of something that's true and reliable, but actually it's not. It's a shecker. Yeah, it's a shecker. A shecker presents itself as one.

thing, but in reality, it's not that thing. That's Shecker. Interesting. It's like an illusion? It's an illusion. Yes, illusion. It's something that betrays. It's masquerading.

What was the word that we talked about earlier in the Ten Commandments about of vanity? Shav. Shav. Don't carry the name of Yahweh, or Elohim. And Shab. That feels similar. It is. similar. Actually, Shecker and Shaav are related words often in biblical poetry.

Carrying the name of God in vain means something exists for a purpose, and that purpose was frustrated or compromised or didn't happen. Okay. So something is for... It's more about its utility. Yeah. It's made to be a thing. Yeah. And that thing... That's Sha'ev. That doesn't happen. That's And this is similar. This is you're putting yourself forward as if you're one thing. You're representing yourself as one thing. That's one thing. But actually.

But it's not. And not only is it not, it's the opposite. It doesn't. So a horse should bring victory. But actually, you could have the most powerful horse in the world. And if God isn't on your side, then it's Shecker for victory. Okay. In Jeremiah 10, idols and molten images are Shekker.

Yeah, okay. Because there is no breath in them. They're representing themselves as a god. A god. And they're inanimate. But in fact, it's a statue. Yeah, okay. That's a shacker.

All right, this is my favorite one. All right. It's a riddle from Proverbs 25. This is so good. Clouds and wind, but no rain. A man who boasts about a gift of shucker. It's a riddle. That's a riddle?

Yeah. Clouds and wind, but no rain. Mm-hmm. A man who boasts about a gift of shecker. So clouds and wind mean rain should be coming. Yeah. So it's making me anticipate the rain. Mm-hmm.

But then if the rain doesn't come, then that was just a huge disappointment. And the sign that the rain was coming actually wasn't really a sign. Yeah, yeah, that's right. The sign was a shecker, I guess, in a way. Mm-hmm. Yeah, the clouds and wind are. promising to offer. Something that's not coming.

Yeah. So they're a shecker. Yeah. Yeah. And a man who boasts of a gift of a shecker is like that. Yeah. Yeah. A man who boasts of a gift.

Of shecker. Of shecker. Yeah. How is this usually translated? So here, I've just stacked them up right here. So NIV translates one who boasts of a gift never given. Or ESV, a man who boasts about a gift he does not give. Oh.

So you could tell. take it to mean clouds and wind, but then they don't. They don't deliver the gift. Deliver the gift of rain. A guy who keeps talking about what he wants to like... He's going to give you something. He's going to give you something. But like he never does it.

He never follows through. Okay. His talk. His talk is like... He makes promises that he doesn't uphold. Yep. And the promise is, I got something for you. I got something for you.

Yeah. Yeah. You're like, yeah. Yeah. You know what you are? You're like a cloud that. doesn't bring rain. Totally. So Checker is about expectation. Or presentation. You expect, I looked at it and it seems like I should expect X as the result based on what it is and how it

appears. But in fact, a guy who keeps saying he wants to give you a gift, well, okay, I take that at face value. Yeah. I assume that's true. You know, it's so interesting that there's something in the human psyche that we just want to trust people. When someone says something is true, our natural response is to be like, of course, that's true. And it's so disorienting when someone just starts saying something that's just absolutely not true. Yeah, yeah.

It's kind of how con men, you know, like are able to do their thing. Yeah. It's because our internal position, default. default is trusting people, I think. Yeah. Until you learn after a long time, like, you actually can't trust this person. Through experience. It takes a lot of time.

Yeah, totally. Yeah. And usually, it seems to be the case that people who are slow to trust or their default has changed to assuming people aren't telling the truth. It's usually just because they've been hurt so many times. Yeah. They're just like that. That default's not working for me.

Right. And maybe it partially has to do with the fact that humans are so helpless when we come into the world that if you have existed and flourished as a child, it's because the people who cared for you were mostly truthful and like reliable and trustworthy. And if we had to second guess everything, we would go nuts. Totally. It drives crazy. So you just have to start to trust that people are presenting reality. And so how damaging is it? Yes, totally.

That's not the case. So that's Shecker. Shecker is you put forward, I'm a truth teller, I'm trustworthy, I'm one thing, but in reality, it's another. That's Shecker. Okay. So Jeremiah, he looks out at the city of Jerusalem, Israelites there, right as Babylon's on the horizon is the big bad oppressor. and the city's just full of crime and terrible leadership. And he says from the least of them to the greatest of them,

everyone's greedy for gain. From the prophets, even the priests, everyone does shecker. They heal the brokenness of my people superficially saying, peace, peace, but there's no peace here. Yeah. Like the leaders are going, everything's fine. We're all fine here. Yeah.

Nothing's broken. No. So it's Shecker. They're doing Shecker. Yeah, that's called doing Shecker. Okay. So there's many cases where you can do Shecker, but then Shecker is often used to describe people's words.

So when Moses and Aaron go to the enslaved Israelites, this is after Moses has come back from the burning bush, he meets up with Aaron, his brother, and they go to Pharaoh, and then they go to the people, and they say, God wants to set you free, and they're like stoked. And then they go to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh's like, what? No way. I don't know who Yahweh is. So this is when Pharaoh starts demanding more bricks, but he gives them less draw. And what he says is let the quota and the labor be heavier on the Israelites,

and let them pay no more attention to these words of Shecker. Referring to Moses's words. Yes, Moses and Aaron, about your goodness. going to get to go free. Yeah. Yeah, okay. False hope. False hope.

Yeah. Oh, so just the word false. Makes sense there. That's a phrase that we have. Deceiving words. Words, yeah, that are false hope. So you can just have words of Shecker or you can do Shecker. Okay.

But then once you use this phrase, bear witness and then you add Shekker. Now we're talking about what in our cultural setting, it's like put your hand on the Bible. Yeah, courtroom setting And you swear an oath Before the court that you will tell the truth And then you don't Misrepresent Yeah

Reality So it's so interesting that the ninth command Is actually really specific To a specific social setting Yeah As opposed to using a more general Like don't speak Shecker Why wasn't the ninth command that

Don't speak Shecker Yeah words of Shecker Words of Yeah Just don't say words of Shecker Which is more like just don't lie. Yeah, that's right. That would apply to a courtroom. Yeah.

But then it would also... More broad. Apply to, like, any other conversation you're having. Yeah, this is a specific setting. But ancient Israel didn't have courtrooms like we have courtrooms, right? Yes, they had city gates. Okay. As far as we know.

And this is mostly from like the book of judges and Ruth, where the elders of a town come together. Deuteronomy talks about this. The gates were like a... So an opening... This was the public forum where you... Where you would go and settle disputes. There you go.

Public form. That's right. And the elders would be the judges, and you'd have people come and say, okay, what's your side of the story? What's your side of the story? That's it. And this is where you're bearing witness. Exactly it. Okay.

Yes. So this is the setting. That's the setting, yeah. So the assumed setting then is you're being called upon to represent your version of what you saw or witnessed or experience. And so now you can really see the communal neighbor implications of this. Why wasn't it a prohibition of don't speak words of Shecker? Why is it bearing false witness in the city gates? Yeah, yeah.

Like, why is it? So specific. Yeah, it is so specific. But maybe what's happening is that words of Shecker spoken between you and me, that's pretty devastating to our relationship. Words of Shekker spoken between you and me when a dispute that we have is like, like going on publicly, that is not only just about you and me, but it's about how truth or

falsehood between you and me affects our whole community. So it puts the focus on the community, is what you're saying. That is what I'm saying. Yeah. Because the move could have been, don't lie. No words of Shecker. And then we can meditate on how that applies to bearing false witness. That's right. Yeah. Interpersonally, or in a more public way. But there's Something about the way that this command is written to say, actually, I just really want you to focus on the communal aspect. Yeah. A shared commitment to truth. It's really important.

So important, it's in the Ten Commandments. A communal commitment to truth. So here's what's interesting is when I turn from the Ten Commandments to their matching companion set of commands in the 42 that's. follow. Okay. These ideas get brought up again. And I'll just kind of give the punchline before. All of the case studies that connect and illuminate the Ninth Command that come in the 42

that follow highlight how misrepresentations of the truth inevitably lead to violence, especially for the most vulnerable in a given community. It's really interesting. Like that's what's at stake. And I think that there's something there that was just kind of surprised me because it wasn't where my mind naturally went. But when a shared commitment to truth breaks down communally, one inevitable consequence is violence,

especially towards the most vulnerable. So that's the punchline. Should we look at some examples? Sure. Yeah. Okay. Exodus 23, verse 1, begins a whole series of case study laws that are kind of like almost little parables and they use the language of the ninth command but in surprising combinations.

So 23 verse 1 you will not bear a false report so this is actually not the word bear witness it's the word report which just means to make something hearable and bear is. bear is the word carry. Okay.

So you will not carry a report of, and it's actually not the word checker, it's the word shav from the third command. Don't carry or bear the name of the Lord your God with Scha. With false purpose. Yeah, okay. You can see how connected these words are. Very connected, exactly, yeah. So don't bear a false report.

don't join your hand with a wicked man to become a witness of violence. So the phrase witness of violence in English at face value just means I saw violence. Right. And that's not what it means here. Oh. It means you're a violent witness? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

A witness that brings about or creates or allows. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So this is describing specific kind of scene here related to bearing. false witness. But instead of using the language of the Ninth Command, we've used a bunch of synonyms bearing a false report. But then bearing a false report is described as joining your hand with a wicked man with the result that you become a witness that leads to violence. So there's another specific little scenario here. I go into a public setting, making a claim about my neighbor's behavior,

and I know it's not true. And I have joined my hand with other wicked men in my community to do this. And as a result, my bearing witness results in violence. And why?

Why does it result in violence? That's a great question. Why would it result in violence? Okay? Let's look at another law that uses the same phrase, witness of violence, DeRime in 1915,

a single witness will not be sufficient against a person for any crime or any wrong in connection with any offense that he's committed. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses can a charge be made. So just internalize that for a moment. It might intuitively make sense, but let's say out loud why. But what's the point of this? Yeah, so okay, so we're in a setting where, again, there's not a courtroom as we imagine it,

but there are elders who are judges of sorts and people can come and bear witness. Here's what happened. And then a decision can be made about who's in the right and who's in the wrong. And what this is saying is, if one person comes and says it, that's not enough for any sort of verdict.

There will not be any sort of announcement of someone's guilt or innocence. It's not enough. Yeah. Yep. You need two. You need at least two. Yeah, because one person might give a witness of Shecker. Yeah.

Two people, well, that's also still possible. Right. But it becomes a little less likely that two people would do that. Three, so the idea is maybe if one person, their conscience is so rotten, they'll do that. But two people with an equally rotten conscience, maybe. Okay. But that's the idea. So, okay, first of all, only on the evidence two or three witnesses.

If a, again, here's this phrase, violent witness or witness of violence, rises up to accuse someone of wrongdoing, both parties to the dispute shall appear before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who are there in those days. And the judges will diligently inquire, and if the witness is a false witness, who's accused his brother falsely, then do to him whatever he meant to do to his brother. Whoa. So you will purge the evil from your midst, and everybody else will hear and be afraid

and never want to commit that kind of evil among you. And the evil is the false witness. The evil is, yes, yeah. So the idea is you're bearing false witness because you know what the consequence will be. Yeah, and you're trying to get that consequence for that person. Yeah, that seems to be what... And that makes you a witness of violence.

A witness of violence means of... Or a violent witness. Yeah. Because what I said earlier was the reason I think why the Ninth Command is worded in the way that it is, is because of this conviction the biblical authors have that when truth is misrepresented in the one place where the truth is the most at stake in a public way, it results in violence towards the most vulnerable. Because all of a sudden, significant life-altering legal punishments, can end up getting handed out to the wrong people.

So that's the violence that's in mind here. Okay. Okay, so let's go back to Exodus 23. Don't carry a false report. Do not join your hand with a wicked man and become a witness of violence or a violent witness. You will not follow after the many in doing evil. You will not testify concerning a dispute

so as to turn aside after the many for distortion. It's dense. It's super dense. And the way I've translated it is actually difficult English. Yeah. But it's hyper literal.

Okay. So let's say you're called upon to testify. Yeah. In a dispute between two people. Uh-huh. And let's say... There's a group that says,

we're going to bear false witness, we're going to take this guy out. Yep. Here's the scheme. Let's get on the same page. Here's the story. That's the red. That's the wicked man.

That's joining your hand to the wicked men. And they say, We need you to follow this story. This is what we're going to do. Yeah. And so if you say, cool, I'm in with that. Dude, you can imagine this scene right here. Let's say you're a witness, like in a court case.

And then the night before, like a group shady figures comes to your house. Yeah. And they're like, you're going to be on the witness stand tomorrow. And what you're going to say is X. Okay. But that's not what happened. What you're going to say is X. Yeah.

Or else we're going to bring you. break your kneecaps or whatever. Okay. That's what here. So don't turn aside after the many in a way that distorts the truth. Okay, let's come back. Here's the next sentence. And a poor man, you also will not show preferential honor in his dispute.

Oh, okay. That's interesting. So it's almost, we have three different laws next to each other, and you're just supposed to be like, how do they relate? so don't bear false witness because that will lead to the wrong people getting punished don't follow

after the many, even when the many are saying you should bear fault's witness and also let's say there's somebody who's economically like really in bad shape in a dispute with somebody who's better off

economically don't show preference based off of their status don't alter the truthfulness of your testimony based off of economic status so in any situation yeah don't alter the truth that's right okay let's keep going don't distort justice for the needy person in his dispute okay oh okay so that's interesting what i just heard was don't show preference to somebody just because they're yeah in a needy situation Yep, in a need situation. But then also, don't distort justice against the needy person in his dispute, I think is what that means. So it gives you both sides. Both sides, okay. Yeah. Keep, this is verse seven, no, keep far away from a shecker, a word of shecker. Okay. Do not kill the innocent or the righteous one because I will not declare the guilty to be righteous. Do not take a bribe because a bribe. Because a bribe. blinds open eyes and it subverts the word of the righteous do not oppress an

immigrant because you know what it means to be an immigrant because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt did this a great example of the laws and the Torah they'll just put these little bundles in front of you and you're not told explicitly how they work together but they are bound together to force you to meditate on a bigger set of values here. It's a lot to keep track of. It is. One of these little sayings is like a little world

unto itself. Yeah. So we were working through it. So don't bear fault to witness if it results in somebody being unfairly punished. Don't bear false witness if a lot of people are pressuring you to. Don't bear false witness

if you want to bend the truth in favor of somebody because, man, they don't have anything. But also, don't bear false witness to take advantage of somebody if they don't have anything. Yeah. Yeah. Keep far from words of shecker. Just keep far away from words of shecker.

And then don't kill the innocent. Ooh. So, yeah, we're back to the witness of violence. Don't do anything that would bring about capital punishment on the wrong person, on the innocent. Okay. Like the ultimate tragedy here is that bad turns into good, good turns into bad. The innocent are guilty and the guilty are innocent. You don't want to live in that world.

Keep far away. And that's true, man. I don't want to live in that world. Yeah. And don't take bribes. And then immigrants. Don't oppress an immigrant. Yeah, that feels completely in the field.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, so let's meditate on that a little more. So why are the economically poor and needy or the immigrant brought up? So they're first brought up with, you might be tempted based on somebody's economic situation to bend the truth, whether they're rich or whether they're poor. Don't do that, as impartial as you can possibly be.

Like that's the ideal. But then also, I think we're bringing up people who are economically or socially vulnerable because who tends to suffer, Who tends to, on your statistical average, get the most taken advantage of when people bend the truth, right, in legal settings? It's usually people who don't have high social standing. Yeah. They don't have the friends.

They don't have the connections. Yeah. Or the resources. In our case, to, like, hire the best lawyer or something, right? Right. And that's really profound that that's being highlighted here, I think. Yeah. The immigrant and the needy and the poor are especially vulnerable

when people in more secure social positions can rig the courts. Essentially. It's just so interesting, like, this is clearly not just a modern issue. Yeah. Like, this is the issue that's plagued human societies from the very beginning. If you have less friends, less money, you're more vulnerable to being a victim of a crooked justice system. Yeah.

And people can more easily convince themselves, it's okay if I bend the truth on this, because that person is not one of us. Yeah. They're not as valuable to our community. There it is. It's not as valuable. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

But God says, I will not declare the guilty to be righteous. So you humans, you can trick each other and get the innocent to be declared guilty. But that's not how I operate, God says. So you can trick each other, but you can't trick me. And you don't want to trick me when it comes to this issue. It's kind of a stern statement there. Yeah. So the Ninth Command to not lie actually is about not bearing false witness in a legal dispute.

Why is that? That was kind of a question that I was trying to pose. Right. And if you look at the mirror of the Ninth Command in the 42, it's this section we're looking at and where it's really focusing is about how a crooked legal system of settling disputes tends to follow a pretty predictable pattern about when the wrong people get punished or have to suffer consequences it is not just innocent people though that's true but often it's people who are in vulnerable social and economic positions and that is

something God really wants to prevent. And then the last, again, the last line says, why? First of all, I won't, you can't trick me, God says, and you yourselves know what it's like to be immigrants. You were immigrants in the land of Egypt. So if Israel is meant to be the light, right, the light shining in the darkness, in the city on the hill, God really wants to have even their communal justice systems stand apart from the typical types of corruption and distortion that they're liable to. So I asked, why does bearing false witness lead to violence? And you said, that's a good question. And I don't know if we've fully answered it.

Oh, okay. Even though when I bear false witness, my hand is not bearing the knife that stabs you in the chest. Sure. But in a way, let's strip away all the formalities. You're the one stabbing them if they end up, yeah, getting some retributive punishment because of your false witness. Let's just name what's really going on. You're a witness of violence. It's just such a striking phrase.

Yeah. Violent witness. Right. Because witness is something you do with your words. You bear witness. But in reality, those words are weapons. Okay, so the ninth command, it's do not bear false witness. And the focus is now communal and this shared reality that we're having as a community,

especially around who's in the right and who's in the wrong and should someone have a consequence for something that they did. And if you go and you carry with you a false report against someone, you're actually creating violence against that person, but you're also now just deteriorating the fabric of this community. Yeah. So there's something about this communal aspect and the violence it brings that seems to be focused of this law. And then also you were saying that the violence tends to be

against people who are vulnerable. Yeah. Because if you have power and status, you could probably get enough people on your side to not bear the false report. But if you're a needy person or you don't have a lot of resources or you don't have a lot of friends, like it's going to be so much easier for people to turn on you. Yeah, that's right. So there's something about the way communal psyches work,

which is like we'll bend the truth, we'll gang up on someone, and that person is going to be someone that doesn't really, matter in our community. And we'll be okay with that. Yeah, that's what tends to happen. That's a predictable pattern in human communities. So not bearing false witness that has big communal implications, but also it's built on this deeper value of like everybody in your community matters, whether they are a landowner

and contribute lots of economic like fuel. to the community or whether they're a priest or a prophet, or whether they're just hard times, and they had to sell themselves in debt slavery, and they lost all their land. And like every one of those community members matters. And if there's a dispute, a shared commitment to truth is so vital

to loving your neighbor and creating a community that bears witness to the character of the God who's revealed himself fundamentally in the world as the liberator of slaves and immigrants. Yeah, what kind of community is going to carry God's name most faithfully? Isn't it interesting that don't carry the name of God in futility or vain? Shav. Yeah, for Shav. And that carrying or bearing a false witness is another way.

And for sure, the fact that those two laws are. connected in those words and then the fact in the 42 commands that you can bear false witness shecker or you can carry a shav report shav report they're kind of bound together i find this interesting because the way we normally summarize the meaning of the ninth commandment is we flatten it out don't lie but the actual wording of it is actually making us think about our more public structures for how we settle people's disputes and how those are prone to distortion, usually to the disadvantage of people who are vulnerable. And that that's something that should be on the mind of the people of God. Should be super mindful of that specifically. So flip it over,

how would you frame it? Yeah. Yeah, hold up and celebrate and reinforce the value of truth telling in public. To the benefit of everyone. Yeah. Especially the vulnerable. Yes, that's right. The truth matters. Protect the truth, uphold it.

And then, I mean, if you're subverting it secretly, the inversion of that would be to promote it publicly. Yeah. So publicly promote and advocate for the truth. Yeah. It's really important. So let's just commit to no matter what. Someone's offering you a bribe.

If you just, you don't like that person. Yeah, you feel pressured or bullied or. Yeah, everyone else is doing it. These are my friends. These are not my friends. No matter what the situation is, let's have a commitment to share the truth about reality. And it's just so interesting that that's one of the ten in a way. It is.

It's very powerful. And let's ponder the significance that that shared public communal commitment to truth to the promotion and sustaining an environment of equity and justice, that is what's at stake in the Ninth Command of the Ten Commandments. It's not just don't lie. It's a very specific form and institutional setting, communal setting of lying that's under the microscope here. and apparently

God's wisdom thinks that we need to take that very seriously as the covenant people of God sending my mind in a lot of places and that's probably happening for a lot of our listeners too so let's let the Holy Spirit

take this wisdom and send our minds to all the places that it needs to go because I'm thinking of so many contemporary public situations that come to mind right now. You know, here's what I feel like right now. I feel like this is a moment where Jesus would say,

if you have ears, you should listen. Thanks for listening to Bible Project podcast. Next week, we finish the Ten Commandments with the Final Command. Do not covet. Or, as we translate it from Hebrew, do not desire your neighbor's house, wife, and, well, a bunch of other things. This command sounds different from all the others,

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