Caput XXI. De falsis testibus
The Wages of a Lying Tongue
Drawing on Proverbs, the author warns that a false witness despises God, deceives the judge, and harms the innocent, while the one whose testimony is true is blessed.
A false witness, Solomon says, will go unpunished (Prov.✦ 19:9). Whoever brings false testimony against their neighbor — their lamp will be extinguished on the last day.✦ Whoever hides the truth out of fear of anyone's power provokes the wrath of God upon themselves, because they fear a human being more than God. A deceitful witness is accountable to three parties: first to God, whose presence they despise; then to the judge, whom they deceive by lying; and finally to the innocent person, whom they harm with false testimony. If false witnesses are separated, the liars are quickly found out. Both are equally guilty—both the one who hides the truth and the one who tells a lie: the one refuses to help, and the other wants to do harm. Blessed is the one whose testimony will be found commendable in the sight of God.
Four Ways Justice Falls
Justice is overturned in four ways—by fear, greed, hatred, and misplaced love—and those who oppress the poor face a harsher judgment than those who suffer wrong.
Justice is overthrown in the courts in four ways: through fear, through greed, through hatred, and through love. By fear, when anyone trembles to speak the truth or render judgment because of someone's power; by greed, when a judge is corrupted by the reward of someone's gift; by hatred, when someone wants to harm another out of personal enmity; by love, when a more powerful person defends friends or relatives against what justice requires. By these four paths the fairness of a judgment is often overthrown, and the innocent are harmed. Those who oppress the poor are more to be grieved than those who suffer the injury. For those who are oppressed quickly put an end to their temporary misery; but those who oppress them through injustice will be condemned to eternal flames.
The Great Reversal
Though the wicked often prosper here and judge the good, in the eternal reckoning the good will be blessed and the wicked wretched, calling both the comfortable and the suffering to persevere.
Here, then, the good are often judged by the wicked; but in the life to come, the wicked will be judged by the good. Often even here the good are unhappy and wretched in the eyes of others, while the wicked prosper. In that eternal reckoning, therefore, the good will always be blessed, and the wicked will always be wretched. Those who enjoy good things in this present life should try all the harder not to lose what lasts forever, and those who suffer hardships should bear them bravely, so that they may be found worthy of eternal blessedness.
Read the original Latin
Falsus testis, dicit Salomon, non erit impunitus (Prov. XIX, 9). Qui falsum testimonium profert contra proximum suum, exstinguetur lucerna ejus in die ultimo. Qui metu cujuslibet potestatis veritatem occultat, iracundiam Dei super se provocat, quia magis timet hominem quam Deum. Falsidicus testis tribus est personis obnoxius: primum Deo, cujus praesentiam contemnit; deinde judici, quem mentiendo fallit; postremo innocenti, quem falso testimonio laedit. Si falsi testes separantur, mox mendaces inveniuntur. Uterque aeque reus est, et qui veritatem occultat, et qui mendacium dicit: quia et ille prodesse non vult, et iste nocere desiderat. Beatus cujus testimonium in conspectu Dei probabile invenietur.
Quatuor modis justitia in judiciis subvertitur: timore, cupiditate, odio, amore. Timore, dum metu potestatis alicujus veritatem dicere vel judicare quislibet pavescit; cupiditate, dum praemio muneris alicujus corrumpitur judex; odio, dum cujuslibet inimicitiae causa nocere alteri desiderat; amore, dum amicos vel propinquos contra justitiam defendit potentior. His quatuor modis saepe aequitas judicii subvertitur, et innocentia laeditur. Magis dolendi sunt qui opprimunt pauperes, quam qui patiuntur injuriam. Illi enim qui opprimuntur, temporalem miseriam cito finiunt: illi vero qui opprimunt eos per injustitiam, aeternis flammis deputabuntur. Hic vero saepe a malis boni judicantur: in futura siquidem vita mali judicabuntur a bonis. Saepe etiam et hic boni infelices sunt et miseri coram hominibus, et mali felices. In illa itaque aeterna retributione semper boni felices erunt, et mali semper miseri erunt.
Hi quibus bona sunt in hoc saeculo, contendant maxime ne bona perdant perpetua: et qui molestias patiuntur, fortiter eas sufferant, ut aeterna beatitudine digni inveniantur.
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