Leviticus 5:1 And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he has seen or known of it; if he do not utter it… Our translation suggests, if it suggests at all, a very obscure and imperfect meaning. It is not, "If a soul hear a person swear, and do not rebuke the swearer, or tell of the swearer," which seems to be suggested by our version; but, If a person summoned to a court of law, under the ancient Jewish economy, adjured by the officiating judge to tell the truth, should not so tell the truth, and all that he knew, then he should be guilty. We have an illustration of this verse in such a passage as that where the high priest came to our blessed Lord, as recorded in Matthew 26:63, and said, "I adjure thee by the living God, that Thou tell us whether Thou be the Christ, the Son of God." Now, that was the high priest acting upon the first verse of this very chapter. And our Lord then heard what is called "the swearing" in this verse, or what in that case was the adjuration of the high priest; and as you notice, so obedient was the true Lamb, the true Saviour, to all the requirements of the ceremonial law, that though He had been dumb when asked previously, yet the moment that the high priest adjured Him, that moment, in obedience to the first verse of this chapter, our blessed Lord answered the question addressed to Him; as if it was impossible that He could fail in the observance of the least jot or tittle of the ceremonial law, any more than in the weightiest requirement of God's moral law. We have in Proverbs 29. an allusion to this: "He heareth an adjuration, and telleth not," — that is laid down as a sin, or, in other words, the violation of this verse. (J. C. Cumming, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. |
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