Proverbs 14:5

14:5 A truthful witness ¹  does not lie,

but a false witness ²  breathes out lies. ³ 

Proverbs 19:5

19:5 A false witness ⁴  will not go unpunished,

and the one who spouts out ⁵  lies will not escape punishment. ⁶ 

Proverbs 19:9

19:9 A false witness will not go unpunished,

and the one who spouts out ⁷  lies will perish. ⁸ 

[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”).

[19:5]  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.”

[19:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “breathes out”; NAB “utters”; NIV “pours out.”

[19:5]  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.

[19:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “breathes out”; NAB “utters”; NIV “pours out.”

[19:9]  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”).