Deuteronomy 19:18

And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:15-21 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Both the men, between whom the controversy is - Not the accused and the false witness, but the plaintiff and defendant (compare Exodus 23:1) who were summoned before the supreme court held, as provided in Deuteronomy 17, at the sanctuary. The judges acted as God's representative; to lie to them was to lie to Him.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

De 19:16-21. Punishment of a False Witness.

16-21. 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 on [158]Ex 21:23; see also Le 24:20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the judges shall make diligent inquisition,.... Into the case before them, into the nature of the evidence and proof that each witness brings for or against; so the Targum of Jonathan,"the judges shall interrogate the witness, by whom these things are said, well;''shall thoroughly examine the testimony given, and look carefully into it:

and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; it appears plainly by full evidence that he has testified a falsehood of him.

Geneva Study Bible

And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. shall make diligent inquisition] See Deuteronomy 13:14 (15), Deuteronomy 17:4; Deuteronomy 17:9; Sg.

false, falsely] Heb. sheḳer: so in Exodus 20:16, but Deuteronomy 5:20 has shav, vain.

brother] here and next v.: the usual term in Sg. passages for fellow-Israelite.

Deuteronomy 19:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The two men between whom the dispute lay, the accused and the witness, were to come before Jehovah, viz., before the priests and judges who should be in those days - namely, at the place of the sanctuary, where Jehovah dwelt among His people (cf. Deuteronomy 17:9), and not before the local courts, as Knobel supposes. These judges were to investigate the case most thoroughly (cf. Deuteronomy 13:15); and if the witness had spoken lies, they were to do to him as he thought to do to his brother. The words from "behold" to "his brother" are parenthetical circumstantial clauses: "And, behold, is the witness a false witness, has he spoken a lie against his brother? Ye shall do," etc. זמם, generally to meditate evil. On Deuteronomy 19:20, see Deuteronomy 13:12.