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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Exodus 20:16 - 20:16
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Heb. not answer, viz. when thou art asked in judgment, Lev_5:1 19:16; or, not speak a false testimony, or as a false witness; which doth not only forbid perjury in judgment, but also all unjust censure, slander, backbiting, scorning, false accusation, and the like; and also requires a just and candid judgment of him, and of his words and actions, speaking well of him, as far as truth and justice will permit, and defending his good name against the calumnies and detractions of others.
Against thy neighbour; no, nor for thy neighbours; but he saith against, both because such perjuries, slanders, &c. are most commonly designed against them, and because this is a great aggravation of the sin, when a man not only speaks evil and falsehood, but doth this from malice and ill-will. But under this kind are contained other sins of a like, though less sinful, nature, as in the other commands.
A man’s
neighbour here is not only the Israelite, as some would have it, but any man; as plainly appears,
1. Because that word is frequently used in that sense, not only in the New, as all agree, but also in the Old Testament, as Gen_11:3 Lev_20:10 Est_1:19 Pro_18:17.
2. Because it is so explained, Luk_10:29,36 Ro 13:9, compared with Mat_22:39.
3. From the reason of the thing, which is common to all; unless a man will be so hardy to say that he may bear false witness against a stranger, though not against an Israelite; and, in like manner, that when God forbids a man to commit adultery with his neighbour’s wife, Lev_20:10, he may do it with a stranger’s wife; and that though a man be commanded to speak the truth to his neighbour, Zec_8:16, he may tell lies to a stranger.
4. Because the great law of love and charity, which is the life and soul of this and all the commands, and binds us to all; binds us, and bound the Israelites, to strangers, as appears from Exo_23:4 Lev_19:33,34.