Heb. not answer, viz. when thou art asked in judgment, Leviticus 5:1, Leviticus 19:16; or, not speak a false testimony, or as a false witness; which doth not only forbid perjury in judgment, but also all unjust censure, slander, backbiting, scorning, false accusation, and the like; and also requires a just and candid judgment of him, and of his words and actions, speaking well of him, as far as truth and justice will permit, and defending his good name against the calumnies and detractions of others. Against thy neighbour; no, nor for thy neighbours; but he saith against, both because such perjuries, slanders, &c. are most commonly designed against them, and because this is a great aggravation of the sin, when a man not only speaks evil and falsehood, but doth this from malice and ill-will. But under this kind are contained other sins of a like, though less sinful, nature, as in the other commands. A man's neighbour here is not only the Israelite, as some would have it, but any man; as plainly appears,
1. Because that word is frequently used in that sense, not only in the New, as all agree, but also in the Old Testament, as Genesis 11:3 Leviticus 20:10 Esther 1:19 Proverbs 18:17.
2. Because it is so explained, Luke 10:29,36 Ro 13:9, compared with Matthew 22:39.
3. From the reason of the thing, which is common to all; unless a man will be so hardy to say that he may bear false witness against a stranger, though not against an Israelite; and, in like manner, that when God forbids a man to commit adultery with his neighbour's wife, Leviticus 20:10, he may do it with a stranger's wife; and that though a man be commanded to speak the truth to his neighbour, Malachi 8:16, he may tell lies to a stranger.
4. Because the great law of love and charity, which is the life and soul of this and all the commands, and binds us to all; binds us, and bound the Israelites, to strangers, as appears from Exodus 23:4 Leviticus 19:33,34.