Deuteronomy 19:15

TWO WITNESSES REQUIRED. (Deu 19:15) One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity--The following rules to regulate the admission of testimony in public courts are founded on the principles of natural justice. A single witness shall not be admitted to the condemnation of an accused person.

If a false witness rise up against any man,.... In a court of judicature: to testify against him: that which is not true of him, let it be in what case it will; Aben Ezra instances in idolatry, but it holds good of any other.

The Punishment of a False Witness. - To secure life and property against false accusations, Moses lays down the law in Deu 19:15, that one witness only was not "to rise up against any one with reference to any crime or sin, with every sin that one commits" (i.e., to appear before a court of justice, or be accepted as sufficient), but everything was to be established upon the testimony of two or three witnesses. The rule laid down in Deu 17:6 and Num 35:30 for capital crimes, is raised hereby into a law of general application (see at Num 35:30). קוּם (in Deu 19:15), to stand, i.e., to acquire legal force. - But as it was not always possible to bring forward two or three witnesses, and the statement of one witness could not well be disregarded, in Deu 19:16-18 Moses refers accusations of this kind to the higher tribunal at the sanctuary for investigation and decision, and appoints the same punishment for a false witness, which would have fallen upon the person accused, if he had been convicted of the crime with which he was charged. סרה בּו לענות, "to testify against his departure," sc., from the law of God, not merely falling away into idolatry (Deu 13:6), but any kind of crime, as we may gather from Deu 19:19, which would be visited with capital punishment.

The laws which Moses had hitherto been repeating and urging mostly concerned the acts of religion and devotion towards God; but here he comes more fully to press the duties of righteousness between man and man. This chapter relates, I. To the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" (Deu 19:1-13). II. To the eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not steal" (Deu 19:14). III. To the ninth commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," (Deu 19:15, etc.).

19:15 The word of one witness alone would count no more than the word of the accused. However, two or three witnesses would confirm or discount each other’s testimony. For New Testament references to this law, see Matt 18:15-20; John 8:17-18; 2 Cor 13:1-2 and study note.