Proverbs 19:5 - Exposition

This verse is repeated below ( Proverbs 19:9 ). It comes in awkwardly here, interrupting the connection which subsists between Proverbs 19:4 and Proverbs 19:6 . 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."