Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour
one of the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:16)
"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" (Biblical Hebrew: לֹא תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ עֵד שָׁקֶר, romanized: Lōʾ ṯaʿăne ḇərēʿăḵā ʿēḏ šāqer) (Exodus 20:16) is one of the Ten Commandments, widely understood as moral imperatives in Judaism and Christianity.
The Book of Exodus describes the Ten Commandments as being spoken by God, inscribed on two stone tablets by the finger of God, broken by Moses, and rewritten by Yahweh on a replacement set of stones hewn by Moses.
The command against false testimony is seen as a natural consequence of the command to "love your neighbour as yourself". This moral prescription flows from the command for holy people to bear witness to their deity. Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of covenant with God.
Ancient understanding
You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.
The Hebrew Bible contains a number of prohibitions against false witness, lying, spreading false reports, etc. For a person who had a charge brought against them and were brought before a religious prosecution, the charge was considered as established only on the evidence of two or three sworn witnesses.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” is one of the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:16). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Thou, shalt and bear, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “one of the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:16)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7796967. The Library of Congress control number is sh85133810. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour primary sources, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour archive and Thou research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.