14:5 A truthful witness 1 does not lie,
but a false witness 2 breathes out lies. 3
19:5 A false witness 4 will not go unpunished,
and the one who spouts out 5 lies will not escape punishment. 6
19:9 A false witness will not go unpunished,
and the one who spouts out 7 lies will perish. 8
1 tn Heb “a witness of faithfulness.” The genitive functions in an attributive sense: “faithful witness” (so KJV, NRSV); TEV “reliable witness.”
2 tn Heb “a witness of falsehood.” The genitive functions in an attributive sense: “false witness.”
3 sn This saying addresses the problem of legal testimony: A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness does lie – naturally. The first colon uses the verb כָּזַב (kazav, “to lie”) and the second colon uses the noun כָּזָב (kazav, “lie; falsehood”).
4 tn Heb “a witness of lies.” This expression is an attributive genitive: “a lying witness” (cf. CEV “dishonest witnesses”). This is paralleled by “the one who pours out lies.”
5 tn Heb “breathes out”; NAB “utters”; NIV “pours out.”
6 tn Heb “will not escape” (so NAB, NASB); NIV “will not go free.” Here “punishment” is implied, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “breathes out”; NAB “utters”; NIV “pours out.”
8 sn The verse is the same as v. 5, except that the last word changes to the verb “will perish” (cf. NCV “will die”; CEV, NLT “will be destroyed”; TEV “is doomed”).