Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
A lie collapses under its own weight unless the unrighteous prop it up and lend it their support. God calls His people away from this wicked conspiracy: do not associate with liars and the malicious to defame your neighbor. There is little difference between inventing a calumny and keeping it alive.
AI summary
False witness in a matter touching a man's life combines lying, perjury, malice, theft, and murder all at once, dressed in the pretense of justice. Slandering and backbiting are species of false witness-bearing; the receiver of slander is as culpable as the thief who stole what he spreads.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 23:1-9
If fewer men were ready to receive every ill thing said of their neighbors, fewer would raise such things in the first place. Judges especially must not easily admit every charge; they must discourage false reports and punish them, and they must not suffer a man known to be an unrighteous witness to give evidence.
AI summary