What Does Deuteronomy 19:16 Mean in the King James?
If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong;
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew names this a “witness of violence”: testimony can do harm by turning its hearers away from the person it claims to describe.
THE MEANING
When testimony is raised against you, the verse shows two forces at work: a witness standing against a person and an account that has turned aside. Words presented as evidence can carry violence when they bend what is seen about someone. The verse speaks to the vulnerability of being judged through a claim presented as fact.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this verse dissolves is that an accusation becomes trustworthy simply because someone testifies to it.
THE ROOT
עֵד חָמָס
ʿēd ḥāmās
GROWS FROM
חמס
ḥ-m-s
To act violently or wrongfully; violence and wrongful harm.
“false witness” in this verse is ʿēd ḥāmās. The phrase joins “witness” to the language of violence, showing that testimony can do harm, not merely misstate a fact. The root names the force carried by the accusation itself.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmās: Violence, wrongful harm.
חָמָס
The witness is described with the vocabulary of harm: the statement’s force can be violent toward the person named.
ḥāmas: To act violently, do wrong, or defraud.
חָמַס
The verb names the wrongful action behind the noun, making the witness’s harm active rather than abstract.
סָרָה
sārāh
GROWS FROM
סור
s-w-r
To turn aside, depart, or remove.
The word rendered “wrong” carries the sense of a turning aside: this testimony has a direction, away from what is true. Its harm lies in bending what is seen about a person.
ALSO GROWS
sūr: To turn aside or depart.
סוּר
This verb makes the deviation in the testimony’s account visible: it has turned aside from the truth.
hēsîr: To remove or take away.
הֵסִיר
This causative form shows another reach of the root: turning aside can remove something from its place, as distortion can displace a person’s truth.
עֵד
ʿēd
GROWS FROM
עוּד
ʿ-w-d
To testify or bear witness.
The witness word belongs to the root of testifying: a witness makes a claim count before others. Here that role is joined to violence and deviation, revealing how testimony can press harm against a person.
ALSO GROWS
hēʿîd: To testify or bear witness.
הֵעִיד
This verb names the act the witness performs: giving testimony against a person.
ʿēdût: Testimony or witness.
עֵדוּת
This noun names the testimony itself, which can carry truth or become the vehicle of harm described here.
THE PATTERN
Words presented as truth can either preserve a neighbor’s standing or distort it into harm.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.THE THREAD
A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.The same Hebrew word עֵד (ʿēd, witness) appears here: Proverbs contrasts a trustworthy witness with a false one, showing that the role carries weight. Deuteronomy names the destructive witness חָמָס (ḥāmās, violence), exposing what that role becomes when testimony turns harm toward someone.
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