Brevard Childs

But the commandment is clearly concerned with truth generally, not only in a courtroom.

Both the great 12th century Jewish commentator Ibn Ezra and one of the most influential biblical scholars of the 20th century, Brevard Childs of Yale University, agreed that the commandment was about truth-telling generally.

As Childs pointed out, if the Ten Commandments were solely concerned with truth and falsehood in a courtroom, it would have added words such as, "...in court." There are many important values in society, but truth is probably the most important.

Goodness and compassion may be the most important values in the micro or personal realm, but in the macro or societal realm, truth is even more important than compassion or kindness.