Deuteronomy 19:16

_IF A FALSE WITNESS RISE UP AGAINST ANY MAN TO TESTIFY AGAINST HIM THAT WHICH IS WRONG;_ But if convicted of perjury, it will be sufficient for his own condemnation, and his punishment shall be exactly the same as would have overtaken the object of his malignant prosecution (see the notes at Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20). No mawkish sentimentalism or misplaced pity was to be indulged toward a false accuser, whose heartless enmity could stimulate him so far as to swear away the property or the life of a neighbour. The law was to be inflexibly executed on a convicted slanderer, who should be doomed to suffer the penalty of the crime with which he maliciously charged another; and nothing was so likely to put an effectual arrest on such infamous attempts as the infliction of this retribut

16._If a false witness rise up against any man_. Because the fear of God does not so prevail in all men, as that they should voluntarily abstain from the love of slander, God here appoints the punishment to be inflicted for perjury: for political laws are enacted against the ungodly and disobedient, in order that those who despise God’s judgment should be brought before the tribunal of men. Although perjury is not here ordained to be tried before the judges, unless there should be an accuser, who should complain that he had been unjustly injured by false-witness, still reason dictates, that if any man have been condemned to death by false-witnesses, the judges should not hesitate to make an official inquiry into the matter. Yet, inasmuch as men are generally disposed to assert their own innocence, God has deemed it sufficient to put the case, that if any complaint should be lodged, the j...

15-21 Sentence should never be passed upon the testimony of one witness alone. A false witness should suffer the same punishment which he sought to have inflicted upon the person he accused. Nor could any law be more just. Let all Christians not only be cautious in bearing witness in public, but be careful not to join in private slanders; and let all whose consciences accuse them of crime, without delay flee for refuge to the hope set before them in Jesus Christ....

TESTIFY AGAINST HIM THAT WHICH IS WRONG - Margin, more literally, “a falling away.” The word is used Deuteronomy 13:5 to signify apostasy or revolt; here it is no doubt to be understood in the wider sense of any departure from the Law....

EXPOSITION LAWS CONCERNING CITIES OF REFUGE. LANDMARKS NOT TO BE REMOVED. LAWS CONCERNING WITNESSES. DEUTERONOMY 19:1 Moses had before this enunciated the law concerning cities of refuge for manslayers, and had already pointed out the cities on the east of the Jordan that were to be set apart for this (Numbers 35:11, etc.; Deuteronomy 4:41, etc.), he here repeats the law with special reference to the appointment of such cities "in the midst of the

IF A FALSE WITNESS RISE UP AGAINST ANY MAN,.... In a court of judicature: TO TESTIFY AGAINST HIM: that which is not true of him, let it be in what case it will; Aben Ezra instances in idolatry, but it holds good of any other....

DEUTERONOMY 19:14 TO DEUTERONOMY 25:19. Consists of miscellaneous laws having no apparent connexion with D's great law of the centralisation of worship. They deal with crime, war, marriage, family relations, and other matters. This part of Dt. is perhaps made up of additions appended from time to time to the original code, and for that reason has double versions of the same laws (_cf. Deuteronomy 20:7_ and Deuteronomy 24:5) and double references to the same thing (_cf_. Deuteronomy 20:1 and...

A FALSE WITNESS. Compare Exodus 23:1, and Deuteronomy 19:16....

Of Witnesses Two or three witnesses are necessary for a conviction (Deuteronomy 19:15). If a witness, forcing his evidence, accuse a man of defection from the law, the two shall stand before God in the supreme court (Deuteronomy 19:16 f.), the judges shall investigate, and if the witness be found false, he shall have done to him what he devised for his brother; so shall evil be removed from Israel (Deuteronomy 19:18 f.) and others take warning (Deuteronomy 19:20); ruthlessly shall like for like be exacted (Deutero

_VER._ 16. _TO TESTIFY AGAINST HIM THAT WHICH IS WRONG_— That is, _to accuse him,_ to _lay any crime to his charge._ Houbigant tenders it very properly, _ut eum criminis accusat: that he may accuse him of a crime:_ and as the detection of a false witness was extremely difficult, the most diligent and exact inquiry was to be made by the priests and judges, ver. 17, 18. Some of the most excellent of our English laws are grounded upon this law; as that of the thirty-seventh of Edward III. chap. 18 which ordains, that "all they who make suggestion, shall be sent with the same suggestion before the chancellor, treasurer, &c. and his grand counsel; and that they there find surety to pursue their suggestions; and incur the same pain which the other should have had, if he were attainted, in case that his suggestions be found evil," &c. And in the thirty-eighth of the same reign, chap. 9 it is en...