Leviticus 5:1

SIN AGAINST JUSTICE CONCEALING TESTIMONY, Leviticus 5:1.

1. Hear the voice of swearing This does not refer to profaning the Divine name, but to the case of a witness who hears the magistrate adjuring the people to utter the truth for the promotion of justice.

If he do not utter If he refuses to testify. This is not perjury, but a suppressio veri, a withholding of the truth, which in law is regarded as culpable as the suggestion of a falsehood. Since justice depends on evidence, concealment of evidence is indicative of a sympathy with injustice.

Bear his iniquity The right word is used; it is iniquity in-equity a crime against right, the primordial basis of human society, which would be subverted by the universal practice of keeping back evidence. The iniquity which he shall bear is that which he screens from punishment by his silence. He has made himself a partaker of the crime.