Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageWhen someone sins by staying silent — they were a witness who had seen or knew the truth, they heard the public summons to testify under oath — yet refused to speak. They will carry the full weight of their own guilt.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GIf a person sins — being a witness who has seen or come to know a matter, yet hears the public oath-charge to testify and does not speak up — he shall bear his own iniquity.
KJV
King James VersionAnd if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.
BSB
Berean Standard Bible“If someone sins by failing to testify when he hears a public charge about something he has witnessed, whether he has seen it or learned of it, he shall bear the iniquity.
Footnotes
The subject nephesh — often rendered 'soul' — denotes a living person in their full creaturely existence, not a disembodied inner self. The phrase qol alah ('voice of an adjuration') refers to a formal public oath-charge by which a community summoned any witnesses to come forward under oath; silence under such a charge was not merely cowardly but a formal breach of covenantal social duty. The word avon ('iniquity') carries the dual sense of the wrongful act and its accumulating consequence — something one 'bears' (nasa), implying a weight that accrues until dealt with. The FOG preserves the legal setting with 'oath-charge to testify'; the FOG Message draws out the moral dimension with 'refused to speak.'
