Proverbs 24:28 - Meaning and Application

We are here forbidden to do anything that harms our neighbor, especially through legal proceedings. This applies, first, to being a witness. We must never give testimony against anyone without cause, unless we know it is fully true and have a clear duty to speak. We must never bear false witness against anyone.

The warning also means more than avoiding direct lies. “Do not deceive with your lips” means do not mislead the judge, the jury, or anyone else into thinking badly of your neighbor. When you speak about your neighbor, make sure you say what is true, and be careful not to hint at something false by the way you speak, through suggestion, exaggeration, or half-truths.

Second, this applies to being a plaintiff or prosecutor. If you must bring a case against your neighbor, do not do it out of revenge. Do not say, “I will get even with him. I will treat him the way he treated me.” Even a right cause becomes wrong when it is pursued with malice.

Do not say, “I will repay the man according to what he has done, and make him pay for it.” That belongs to God, whose right it is to repay. We must leave judgment in his hands and not try to take his place. If we insist on being our own judges in our own case, we lose the benefit of appealing to God’s court. Therefore we must not take revenge, because God has said, “Vengeance is mine.”