Deuteronomy 5:20

Summary

Deuteronomy 5:20 prohibits testifying against one's neighbor with a testimony of falsehood. The verse forms part of the series of prohibitions in the Decalogue as repeated in Deuteronomy.

Key words

• ta.'a.neh ("you must testify", H6030B) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular; the imperfect aspect marks this as an ongoing or future prohibition, negated by lo' ("not", H3808) to form a durative command against a type of action rather than a single instance.
• re.'a...kha ("your neighbor", H7453 + H9021) — masculine singular noun in construct form joined to the second-person suffix "your," indicating the specific person against whom the prohibited act would be directed.
• 'ed ("testimony of", H5707) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be joined to the following noun to form the phrase "testimony of falsehood" rather than standing as an independent term.
• shav' ("falsehood", H7723G) — masculine singular noun that completes the construct chain begun by 'ed, specifying the quality of the testimony being prohibited.
• ve ("against", H9003) — the preposition attached to re.'a ("neighbor"), establishing the relational direction of the prohibited testimony.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around the negated imperfect verb ta.'a.neh ("you must testify," H6030B), preceded by the negation lo' ("not," H3808). This combination of negation plus imperfect verb form is the standard construction in this list of prohibitions, producing a general and ongoing prohibition rather than addressing a single occasion.

The object of the prohibition is expressed through a construct chain: 'ed ("testimony of," H5707) is grammatically bound to shav' ("falsehood," H7723G), so the two words together form a single phrase, "testimony of falsehood," in which shav' specifies the nature of the 'ed. This construct relationship means the two nouns cannot be separated in Hebrew grammar without breaking the phrase's meaning.

The preposition ve ("against," H9003) prefixed to re.'a...kha ("your neighbor," H7453 + H9021) marks the direction of the prohibited testimony — it is testimony given against someone rather than merely about them. The suffix -kha ("your") on re.'a specifies that the neighbor is the addressee's own neighbor, tying the prohibition to a relational context between the person addressed and another party.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the construct phrase 'ed shav' ("testimony of falsehood") with the single compound verb ψευδομαρτυρήσεις ("you shall bear false witness"), converting the Hebrew noun-based construction into a verbal one. The Vulgate similarly uses the verb loqueris ("you shall speak") combined with falsum testimonium ("false testimony"), also shifting the grammatical structure from the noun-centered Hebrew phrasing to a verb-plus-object construction.