Ecclesiastes 14:25

Nova Vulgata

Liberat animas testis fidelis, et profert mendacia versipellis.

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Liberat animas testis fidelis, et profert mendacia versipellis.

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Liberat animas testis fidelis,
et profert mendacia versipellis.]

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Proverbs 14:5, Acts 20:21, Acts 20:26, Acts 20:27, Acts 26:16-20, 1 Timothy 4:1-3, 2 Peter 3:3

Reciprocal: Proverbs 12:17 - that

Gill's Notes on the Bible

A true witness delivereth souls,.... Or, "a witness of truth" x: one that witnesses truth upon oath in a court of judicature, he "delivers souls"; men, not one man only, but many; a whole family, or more, in danger of being ruined; he delivers them, as the Septuagint and Arabic versions add, "from evils"; from evil charges and accusations brought against them; from the oppression of their enemies, from the loss of their good name, and from ruin and destruction, that otherwise would have come upon them; he delivers their "lives" y, as it may be rendered, in danger of being lost by false accusations: so a witness of the truth of Christ, or a faithful minister of the Gospel, not only saves himself, but them that hear him; and is an instrument of delivering the souls of men from error and damnation;

but a deceitful [witness] speaketh lies; boldly, openly, by wholesale; he blows them out z, to the ruin of the good names and characters, and to the destruction of the lives, of the innocent; and so a false teacher, one that lies in wait to deceive, speaks lies in hypocrisy, doctrinal lies, to the ruin of the souls of men. The Targum is,

"he that speaketh lies is deceitful;''

he is "deceit" a itself, as in the Hebrew text. Such is the man of sin, and such are his emissaries.

x עד אמת "testis veritatis", Montanus, Cocceius, Schultens. y נפשות "vitas; animam pro vita usurpari notum", Gejerus. z יפיח "efflat", Tigurine version, Piscator, Gejerus; "spirat", Schultens; "efflabit", Monatnus. a מרמה "dolus", Montanus, Vatablus; "fraus", Cocceius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In the second clause, “destroyeth life” might have been expected as the antithesis to “delivereth souls.” But what worse could be said? “A deceitful witness speaketh lies.” All destruction is implied in falsehood.