John Gill Commentary Proverbs 14:25

"A true witness delivereth souls; But he that uttereth lies [causeth] deceit." — Proverbs 14:25 (ASV)

A true witness delivers 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" ^F25 , 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] speaks lies;
boldly, openly, by wholesale; he blows them out ^F26 , 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 speaks lies is deceitful;'' he is "deceit" ^F1 itself, as in the Hebrew text. Such is the man of sin, and such are his emissaries.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F25: (twvpn) "vitas; animam pro vita usurpari notum", Gejerus.
• F26: (xypy) "efflat", Tigurine version, Piscator, Gejerus; "spirat", Schultens; "efflabit", Monatnus.
• F1: (hmrm) "dolus", Montanus, Vatablus; "fraus", Cocceius.