Proverbs 14:5

14:5 A truthful witness ¹  does not lie,

but a false witness ²  breathes out lies. ³ 

Joshua 2:14

2:14 The men said to her, “If you ⁴  die, may we die too! ⁵  If you do not report what we’ve been up to, ⁶  then, when the Lord hands the land over to us, we will show unswerving allegiance ⁷  to you.” ⁸ 

Joshua 2:20

2:20 If you should report what we’ve been up to, ⁹  we are not bound by this oath you made us swear.”

Jeremiah 38:27

38:27 All the officials did indeed come and question Jeremiah. ¹⁰  He told them exactly what the king had instructed him to say. ¹¹  They stopped questioning him any further because no one had actually heard their conversation. ¹² 

[14:5]  ¹ tn Heb “a witness of faithfulness.” The genitive functions in an attributive sense: “faithful witness” (so KJV, NRSV); TEV “reliable witness.”

[14:5]  ² tn Heb “a witness of falsehood.” The genitive functions in an attributive sense: “false witness.”

[14:5]  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”).

[2:14]  ⁴ tn The second person pronoun is masculine plural, indicating that Rahab’s entire family is in view.

[2:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “Our lives in return for you to die.” If the lives of Rahab’s family are not spared, then the spies will pay for the broken vow with their own lives.

[2:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “If you do not report this matter of ours.”

[2:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “allegiance and faithfulness.” These virtual synonyms are joined in the translation as “unswerving allegiance” to emphasize the degree of promised loyalty.

[2:14]  ⁸ tn The second person pronoun is feminine singular, referring specifically to Rahab.

[2:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “and if you report this matter of ours.”

[38:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “All the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him.”

[38:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And he reported to them according to all these words which the king had commanded.”

[38:27]  ¹² tn Heb “And they were silent from him because the word/matter [i.e., the conversation between Jeremiah and the king] had not been heard.” According to BDB 578 s.v. מִן 1.a the preposition “from” is significant in this construction, implying a verb of motion. I.e., “they were [fell] silent [and turned away] from him.”