◄ Proverbs 25:18 ►
Like a club or sword or sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.
Study Bible
Like a club or sword or sharp arrow
This phrase uses vivid imagery to convey the destructive power of false testimony. In ancient times, a club, sword, and arrow were common weapons of war, each designed to inflict harm or death. The Hebrew words used here, "maqqel" (club), "chereb" (sword), and "chets" (arrow), emphasize the severity and variety of damage that can be caused. A club represents blunt force, a sword signifies cutting and piercing, and an arrow denotes precision and distance in attack. This imagery underscores the idea that false words can be as damaging as physical violence, capable of wounding deeply and causing lasting harm.

is a man who bears false witness
The act of bearing false witness is explicitly condemned in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:16). The Hebrew word "ed" (witness) and "sheqer" (falsehood) together highlight the moral and ethical breach involved in lying about another person. In the context of ancient Israel, where community cohesion and trust were vital, false testimony could lead to unjust punishment, social discord, and the breakdown of communal relationships. This phrase serves as a warning against the sin of deceit, emphasizing the responsibility to uphold truth and justice.

against his neighbor
The term "neighbor" (Hebrew: "rea") in biblical context extends beyond mere proximity to encompass fellow members of the community. It reflects the interconnectedness of individuals within the covenant community of Israel. Bearing false witness against a neighbor is not just a personal offense but a communal one, as it undermines the trust and integrity essential for societal harmony. This phrase calls believers to love and protect their neighbors, aligning with Jesus' teaching to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39), reinforcing the call to live in truth and righteousness.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Solomon
Traditionally attributed as the author of Proverbs, Solomon was the son of King David and known for his wisdom. He compiled these sayings to impart wisdom and understanding.

2. False Witness
This refers to a person who gives false testimony or lies about another, particularly in a legal or formal setting. In ancient Israel, bearing false witness was a serious offense with significant social and legal implications.

3. Neighbor
In the context of Proverbs, a neighbor is not just someone who lives nearby but any fellow member of the community. The term emphasizes the relational aspect and the duty of care and truthfulness owed to others.
Teaching Points
The Power of Words
Words can be as destructive as physical weapons. Just as a club, sword, or arrow can cause physical harm, false testimony can damage reputations, relationships, and communities.

The Call to Integrity
Christians are called to be people of integrity, reflecting God's truthfulness in their speech and actions. Bearing false witness is contrary to the character of God and the teachings of Christ.

Community Responsibility
As members of a community, believers have a responsibility to uphold truth and justice. False testimony not only harms individuals but undermines the trust and cohesion of the entire community.

Guarding the Tongue
Believers must be vigilant in guarding their speech, ensuring that their words build up rather than tear down. This requires self-control and a commitment to truth.

Repentance and Reconciliation
If one has borne false witness, it is crucial to seek forgiveness from God and those harmed, and to work towards reconciliation and restoration.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the imagery of a club, sword, or sharp arrow help us understand the impact of bearing false witness?

2. In what ways can false testimony affect a community, and how can believers work to prevent such harm?

3. Reflect on a time when you witnessed or experienced the effects of false testimony. How did it impact your understanding of truth and justice?

4. How can the teachings of James 3:5-6 about the power of the tongue inform our approach to speaking truthfully?

5. What practical steps can you take to ensure that your words align with the call to integrity and truthfulness found in Ephesians 4:25?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Exodus 20:16
This verse is part of the Ten Commandments, explicitly prohibiting bearing false witness against one's neighbor, highlighting the moral and legal importance of truthfulness.

James 3:5-6
This passage discusses the power of the tongue, likening it to a small spark that can set a great forest on fire, similar to how false testimony can cause significant harm.

Ephesians 4:25
Paul urges believers to put away falsehood and speak truthfully to their neighbors, reinforcing the communal and ethical responsibility of honesty.
Sermons
Excesses and ErrorsE. Johnson Proverbs 25:16-20
The Wisdom of ModerationW. Clarkson Proverbs 25:16, 27
Bad NeighboursD. Thomas, D.D.Proverbs 25:17-20
People
Hezekiah, Solomon
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Arrow, Beareth, Bears, Club, Gives, Hammer, Maul, Neighbor, Neighbour, Sharp, Sword, Testifying, Testimony, War, Witness
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Proverbs 25:18

     5210   arrows
     5625   witnesses, false

Library
An Unwalled City
'He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.'--PROVERBS xxv. 28. The text gives us a picture of a state of society when an unwalled city is no place for men to dwell in. In the Europe of today there are still fortified places, but for the most part, battlements are turned into promenades; the gateways are gateless; the sweet flowers blooming where armed feet used to tread; and men live securely without bolts and bars. But their spirits cannot yet …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

God's Glory in Hiding Sin
A sermon (No. 2838) intended for reading on Lord's Day, July 5th 1903, delivered by C. H. Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, on Lord's Day evening, July 15th, 1877. "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter."--Proverbs 25:2. The translation of our text, if it had been more literal, would have run thus, "It is the glory of God to cover a matter, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter." For the sake of variety in language …
C.H. Spurgeon—Sermons on Proverbs

Good News
A sermon (No. 2866) delivered on Thursday Evening, January 6th, 1876, by C.H. Spurgeon at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. "As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country."--Proverbs 25:25. This is a text for summertime rather than for a winter's evening. It is only on one of our hottest summer days that we could fully appreciate the illustration here employed; we need to be parched with thirst to be able to feel the value of cold waters to quench our thirst. At the same …
C.H. Spurgeon—Sermons on Proverbs

That a Man Should not be a Curious Searcher of the Sacrament, but a Humble Imitator of Christ, Submitting his Sense to Holy Faith
The Voice of the Beloved Thou must take heed of curious and useless searching into this most profound Sacrament, if thou wilt not be plunged into the abyss of doubt. He that is a searcher of Majesty shall be oppressed by the glory thereof.(1) God is able to do more than man can understand. A pious and humble search after truth is to be allowed, when it is always ready to be taught, and striving to walk after the wholesome opinions of the fathers. 2. Blessed is the simplicity which leaveth alone …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Epistle xxxix. To Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria.
To Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria. Gregory to Eulogius, &c. As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country (Prov. xxv. 25). But what can be good news to me, so far as concerns the behoof of holy Church, but to hear of the health and safety of your to me most sweet Holiness, who, from your perception of the light of truth, both illuminate the same Church with the word of preaching, and mould it to a better way by the example of your manners? As often, too, as I recall in …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Epistle Xlii. To Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria.
To Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria. Gregory to Eulogius, &c. We return great thanks to Almighty God, that in the mouth of the heart a sweet savour of charity is experienced, when that which is written is fulfilled, As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country (Prov. xxv. 25). For I had previously been greatly disturbed by a letter from Boniface the Chartularius, my responsalis, who dwells in the royal city, saying that your to me most sweet and pleasant Holiness had suffered …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Wherefore Christ Undertook a Method of Setting us Free So Painful and Laborious, when a Word from Him, or an Act of his Will, Would Alone
Wherefore Christ undertook a method of setting us free so painful and laborious, when a word from Him, or an act of His will, would alone have sufficed. 19. Then he labours to teach and persuade us that the devil could not and ought not to have claimed for himself any right over man, except by the permission of God, and that, without doing any injustice to the devil, God could have called back His deserter, if He wished to show him mercy, and have rescued him by a word only, as though any one denies …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

"Boast not Thyself of To-Morrow, for Thou Knowest not what a Day May Bring Forth. "
Prov. xxvii. 1.--"Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." There are some peculiar gifts that God hath given to man in his first creation, and endued his nature with, beyond other living creatures, which being rightly ordered and improved towards the right objects, do advance the soul of man to a wonderful height of happiness, that no other sublunary creature is capable of. But by reason of man's fall into sin, these are quite disordered and turned out of …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Love in the Old Covenant.
"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another."-- John xiii. 34. In connection with the Holy Spirit's work of shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts, the question arises: What is the meaning of Christ's word, "A new commandment I give unto you"? How can He designate this natural injunction, "To love one another," a new commandment? This offers no difficulty to those who entertain the erroneous view that during His ministry on earth Christ established a new and higher religion, …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
The first important part of the Old Testament put together as a whole was the Pentateuch, or rather, the five books of Moses and Joshua. This was preceded by smaller documents, which one or more redactors embodied in it. The earliest things committed to writing were probably the ten words proceeding from Moses himself, afterwards enlarged into the ten commandments which exist at present in two recensions (Exod. xx., Deut. v.) It is true that we have the oldest form of the decalogue from the Jehovist …
Samuel Davidson—The Canon of the Bible

How the Silent and the Talkative are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 15.) Differently to be admonished are the over-silent, and those who spend time in much speaking. For it ought to be insinuated to the over-silent that while they shun some vices unadvisedly, they are, without its being perceived, implicated in worse. For often from bridling the tongue overmuch they suffer from more grievous loquacity in the heart; so that thoughts seethe the more in the mind from being straitened by the violent guard of indiscreet silence. And for the most part they …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

God's Glory the Chief End of Man's Being
Rom. xi. 36.--"Of him and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever." And 1 Cor. x. 31--"Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." All that men have to know, may be comprised under these two heads,--What their end is, and What is the right way to attain to that end? And all that we have to do, is by any means to seek to compass that end. These are the two cardinal points of a man's knowledge and exercise. Quo et qua eundum est,--Whither to go, and what way to go. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Christian Behavior
Being the fruits of true Christianity: Teaching husbands, wives, parents, children, masters, servants, etc., how to walk so as to please God. With a word of direction to all backsliders. Advertisement by the Editor This valuable practical treatise, was first published as a pocket volume about the year 1674, soon after the author's final release from his long and dangerous imprisonment. It is evident from the concluding paragraph that he considered his liberty and even his life to be still in a very …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Appendix v. Rabbinic Theology and Literature
1. The Traditional Law. - The brief account given in vol. i. p. 100, of the character and authority claimed for the traditional law may here be supplemented by a chronological arrangement of the Halakhoth in the order of their supposed introduction or promulgation. In the first class, or Halakhoth of Moses from Sinai,' tradition enumerates fifty-five, [6370] which may be thus designated: religio-agrarian, four; [6371] ritual, including questions about clean and unclean,' twenty-three; [6372] concerning …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The History Books
[Illustration: (drop cap T) Assyrian idol-god] Thus little by little the Book of God grew, and the people He had chosen to be its guardians took their place among the nations. A small place it was from one point of view! A narrow strip of land, but unique in its position as one of the highways of the world, on which a few tribes were banded together. All around great empires watched them with eager eyes; the powerful kings of Assyria, Egypt, and Babylonia, the learned Greeks, and, in later times, …
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making

The Ninth Commandment
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.' Exod 20: 16. THE tongue which at first was made to be an organ of God's praise, is now become an instrument of unrighteousness. This commandment binds the tongue to its good behaviour. God has set two natural fences to keep in the tongue, the teeth and lips; and this commandment is a third fence set about it, that it should not break forth into evil. It has a prohibitory and a mandatory part: the first is set down in plain words, the other …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Proverbs
Many specimens of the so-called Wisdom Literature are preserved for us in the book of Proverbs, for its contents are by no means confined to what we call proverbs. The first nine chapters constitute a continuous discourse, almost in the manner of a sermon; and of the last two chapters, ch. xxx. is largely made up of enigmas, and xxxi. is in part a description of the good housewife. All, however, are rightly subsumed under the idea of wisdom, which to the Hebrew had always moral relations. The Hebrew …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

Links
Proverbs 25:18 NIV
Proverbs 25:18 NLT
Proverbs 25:18 ESV
Proverbs 25:18 NASB
Proverbs 25:18 KJV

Proverbs 25:18 Commentaries

Bible Hub
Proverbs 25:17
Top of Page
Top of Page