Exodus 23:1

Thou shalt not raise a false report, &c.— There is an ambiguity in the word תשׂא tissa, which signifies no less to spread false reports, than to give credit to them when spread. Houbigant prefers the latter sense (thou shalt not give ear to a false report); and for this reason, says he, that the meaning of the two clauses of this verse may be different: the first, providing that false reports may not be credited; the latter, that they may not be spread by an unrighteous testimony. The margin of our Bibles renders the word, receive a false report, which serves to shew the ambiguity of the original word. Perhaps the first clause may refer to the raising or countenancing private calumny; the latter, to the public attestation of such calumny in courts of justice; which appears the more probable, as the union here forbidden seems to imply a formal design for public injury: thou shalt not put thine hand with the wicked, i.e. thou shalt not associate and confederate with such.