Here are God’s principles for the courts: honesty, corroboration, inquiry, fair sentencing.
As important as being straight about boundary lines, God’s people also need to be straight about telling the truth. In Israel, false testimony could be as fatal as a knife to the heart. That’s why “by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established” (Deut 19:15). It was no light thing to testify against another, especially in a capital case. For this reason, “both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days. And the judges shall make careful inquiry” (vv 17-18). To this day (in most cases) our law courts invoke the presence of God before a witness speaks. Often with a hand on the Bible, they are required to intone, “so help me God.” It was part of the package of legislation regarding a capital offence—one where, if guilty, the criminal would be executed—that false testimony would put the lying witness under the sentence of death! No jailhouse snitches there! “If the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother” (vv 18-19). One thing more: “Your eye shall not pity: life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (v 21). This was not intended to be an expression of vindictiveness but a limiting of the penalty to match the damages. If a man valued his own members, he would avoid injuring those of others. Such a law would certainly diminish the violence often seen in our society. Wife- and child-abusers would soon learn if they got a taste of some of their own cruelty! These practices not only maintained the integrity of the courts, but “those who remain shall hear and fear, and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you” (v 20).