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Chapter 28MogilaPravIsp.3.28

О девятой заповеди

The Ninth Commandment Defined

The ninth commandment prohibits bearing false witness against one's neighbor, as stated in Exodus 20:16.

Question 69. What is the ninth commandment?✦ Answer. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" (Ex.12 20:16).

Understanding the Commandment

This commandment forbids lies and attacks on a neighbor's honor, urging self-control and justice, especially for those in legal professions, to avoid becoming like the devil.

Question 70. How should this commandment be understood?✦ Answer. This commandment forbids anyone to lie about their neighbor or to attack another person's honor out of malice or revenge. In short, it commands us to keep every passion in check, so we don't become children of the devil, like those to whom the Lord said: "You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from what is his own, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (John34 8:44).5 This commandment must be kept above all by those who work in the courts, so they don't act against justice by relying on false testimony or written denunciations. Otherwise, they'll become children of the devil and of eternal hell.67

Read the original Russian

Вопрос 69. Какая девятая заповедь?

Ответ. «Не послушествуй на друга своего свидетелства ложна» (Исх. 20, 16).

Вопрос 70. Как должно понимать сию заповедь?

Ответ. Заповедь сия запрещает всякому говорить на ближнего своего какую-нибудь ложь, или поносить чью честь по злобе и мщению; кратко сказать, велит нам укрощать всякую страсть, дабы не быть сынами диавола, подобно тем, к которым сказал Господь: «вы отца [вашего] диавола есте и похоти отца вашего хощете творити: он человекоубийца бе искони и во истине не стоит, яко несть истины в нем: егда глаголет лжу, от своих глаголет, яко ложь есть и отец лжи» (Ин. 8, 44). Сию заповедь особенно должны соблюдать те, которые занимаются судопроизводством, дабы не поступить против справедливости, утверждаясь или на ложных свидетельствах, или письменных донесениях; в противном случае соделаются сынами диавола и геенны вечной.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Exod.20.16 — You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
  2. ↩Exod.20.16 — You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The source quotes the commandment in Church Slavonic ("Не послушествуй на друга своего свидетелства ложна"). Rendered with the familiar English scriptural cadence, as the register rules allow for quoted Scripture. Slavonic 'друг' here carries the biblical sense of 'neighbor', not 'friend'.
  2. 2 ↩The scripture citation is split across sentence boundaries in the source segmentation: the reference opens here ("Исх.") and closes in the following sentence ("20, 16)."). Both halves are preserved in place rather than merged.
  3. 3 ↩The source quotes John 8:44 in Church Slavonic. Rendered here in contemporary English matching the surrounding register; the bracketed "[вашего]" of the source is absorbed into "your father the devil." Final scriptural wording awaits Moses resolution.
  4. 4 ↩"поносить чью честь" — literally "to revile someone's honor"; rendered "attack another person's honor" to keep the concrete force of slander rather than a vague insult.
  5. 5 ↩Source segmentation splits the citation "(Ин. 8, 44)" across two sentence refs; the Russian chapter-verse form "8, 44" is rendered in the standard English form "8:44".
  6. 6 ↩"письменных донесениях" — written reports or informers' depositions submitted to a court; "written denunciations" keeps the accusatory sense the context requires.
  7. 7 ↩"геенны вечной" is literally "eternal Gehenna"; rendered "eternal hell" for a contemporary reader, preserving the Gospel idiom of "son of Gehenna" (cf. Matt 23:15).

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