Proverbs 24:28-29
Righteous character rejects deceitful testimony and refuses revenge.
28 Don’t be a witness against your neighbor without cause. Don’t deceive with your lips.
29 Don’t say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will repay the man according to his work.”
Righteous character rejects deceitful testimony and refuses revenge.
To warn against bearing false witness and against retaliatory revenge toward one's neighbor.
Proverbs 24:28-29 follows Proverbs 24:27, which taught wise preparation before building a house. The collection now returns to neighbor ethics, especially truthful speech and revenge. It also connects closely with Proverbs 24:23-26, where impartial judgment and honest answers were commended. If honest answers are like a kiss on the lips, then deceptive testimony against a neighbor is a violent misuse of the lips. The passage also echoes Proverbs 24:17-18, which warned against gloating when an enemy falls. Here the warning intensifies from inward gloating to active retaliation. Proverbs 24 has repeatedly guarded the learner from wicked companionship, scheming, mockery, gloating, envy, rebellion, partiality, and now revengeful false witness.
In ancient Israel, testimony against a neighbor could affect reputation, property, legal standing, family security, punishment, and even life. False witness was therefore not merely a private lie but a public danger. Proverbs 24:28-29 warns against testifying without cause and using the lips to deceive. It then exposes retaliatory motivation: the desire to repay another person in kind. The passage reflects a covenant community where truth, justice, and neighbor-love were necessary for household and public stability.
Wisdom Builds the House: Justice, Courage, Diligence, Enemies, and the Future of the Righteous
Wisdom builds life through understanding, courage, justice, restraint, hope, truthful speech, and diligent stewardship, while wickedness, envy, cowardice, partiality, revenge, and laziness lead to collapse.