Verse 5. - This verse is repeated below (ver. 9). It comes in awkwardly here, interrupting the connection which subsists between vers. 4 and 6. Its right place is doubtless where it occurs below. The Law not only strictly forbade false witness (Exodus 20:16; Exodus 23:1), but it enacted severe penalties against offenders in this particular (Deuteronomy 19:16, etc.); the lex talionis was to be enforced against them, they were to receive no pity: "Life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." He that speaketh lies shall not escape. The Septuagint confines the notion of this clause to false accusers, Ὁ δὲ ἐγκαλῶν ἀδίκως, "He who maketh an unjust charge shall not escape," which renders the two clauses almost synonymous. We make a distinction between the members by seeing in the former a denunciation against a false witness in a suit, and in the second a more sweeping menace against any one, whether accuser, slanderer, sycophant, who by lying injures a neighbour. The History of Susanna is brought forward in confirmation of the well deserved fate of false accusers.

Ψευδὴς διαβολὴ τὸν βίον λυμαίνεται.

"A slander is an outrage on man's life."

19:3. Men run into troubles by their own folly, and then fret at the appointments of God. 4. Here we may see how strong is men's love of money. 5. Those that tell lies in discourse, are in a fair way to be guilty of bearing false-witness. 6. We are without excuse if we do not love God with all our hearts. His gifts to us are past number, and all the gifts of men to us are fruits of his bounty. 7. Christ was left by all his disciples; but the Father was with him. It encourages our faith that he had so large an experience of the sorrows of poverty. 8. Those only love their souls aright that get true wisdom. 9. Lying is a damning, destroying sin. 10. A man that has not wisdom and grace, has no right or title to true joy. It is very unseemly for one who is a servant to sin, to oppress God's free-men.A false witness shall not be unpunished,.... He that bears false witness against his neighbour in an open court of judicature; though be may not be detected by men, and so escape the punishment due to such offenders by the laws of God and men; yet God, who knows all hearts and actions, will not suffer him to go with impunity; if not punished in this world, he shall be in the world to come; for bearing false witness, or perjury, is a grievous offence to God;

and he that speaketh lies shall not escape; even he that useth himself to lying in private conversation shall not escape the reproach of men; for nothing is more scandalous than lying; nor the wrath of God, such shall have their portion in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, Revelation 21:8.