Bible Strands
Proverbs 24:28
Do not testify against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The wisdom teacher addresses the reader within a sequence of practical instructions, placing this command between directives on completing daily labor and rejecting personal vengeance.
The words — עֵד ('ed) means witness, and חִנָּם (chi.nam) means without cause or freely, framing the prohibition against bearing false legal testimony.
The thread — This prohibition echoes in Proverbs 25:18, which compares false witness to a club or sword, and in Ephesians 4:25, which commands believers to put off falsehood and speak truth to their neighbor. The narrative context of 1 Kings 21:9-10 shows how official letters and public honors can be weaponized to facilitate false legal proceedings.
Why it lands — The text demands the reader reject baseless accusations and verbal deception, treating honest testimony as a structural requirement for communal justice rather than a negotiable preference.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive not with thy lips.
Cross-references
- Ephesians 4:25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.
- 1 Kings 21:9 In the letters she wrote: “Proclaim a fast and give Naboth a seat of honor among the people.
- Proverbs 25:18 Like a club or sword or sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.
- Matthew 26:59 Now the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were seeking false testimony against Jesus in order to put Him to death.
- Exodus 20:16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- Exodus 23:1 “You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness.
- 1 Samuel 22:9 But Doeg the Edomite, who had stationed himself with Saul’s servants, answered: “I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob.
- Job 2:3 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.”
- Psalms 35:7 For without cause they laid their net for me; without reason they dug a pit for my soul.
- Psalms 35:11 Hostile witnesses come forward; they make charges I know nothing about.