16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

The penultimate commandment is that we do not bear false witness towards our neighbor. Bearing “false witness” applies in a formal, legalistic sense, meaning that we must not falsely testify against someone before a court. It also applies in a more informal, social sense, meaning that we must not tells rumors and gossip, tearing down the reputation of another on spurious claims.

Of course, this commandment is specifically decrying “false” claims. It is not saying that we must never sue for justice when our neighbor has genuinely wronged us, nor that we cannot give genuine cautions against the real and perverse behaviors of a neighbor. This commandment assumes that there is such a thing as the “truth,” and that we are to align ourselves to it. We may never know the entire truth of another person, but we do know when we are concocting a lie about them, and that is what is forbidden.