Jehovah tell Israel people make they be holy people. To help them dey holy, e tell them say: “Make you no ever go among your people de spread lies to spoil the name of other people. Make you no ever do anything wey go put the life of your neighbor for danger (or, stand up against the life of your fellow man). I be Jehovah.”—Lev. 19:2, 16.

For English, the way we translate the command wey dey Leviticus 19:16 na really fine translation of the way e be for Hebrew language. But wetin e mean? One Jewish book wey talk about the book of Leviticus talk say, the part of that Bible verse wey talk about the command, dey hard to understand because e no easy to know the real meaning of the Hebrew proverb wey they use for there. The way e be for Hebrew na, ‘no stand de look, no stand near.’

Some people wey de study this kind matter think say this command connect with wetin dey verse 15 wey talk say: “Make wuna no do wayo when wuna de judge. Make you no go treat poor people with partial or favor rich people. You go use the right way judge your neighbor.” (Lev. 19:15) If na so, then the command for verse 16 wey talk say make person no “stand up against” another person fit mean say, make Israel people no do any wayo thing to their neighbor for court matter, for business, or for family. And they no suppose lie for anything to favor theirself. Na true say we no suppose do this things, but another way dey to understand that command for verse 16 more.

Think about the beginning part of verse 16. God command e people make they no go de spread lies to spoil the name of another person. To use lie spoil person name no be just kongosa or amebo, even though say this one fit cause problem too. (Prov. 10:19; Eccl. 10:12-14; 1 Tim. 5:11-15; Jas. 3:6) Many times, person wey de spread lies to spoil the name of another person no de do-am by mistake. This person fit talk wetin e eye no see about another person, even if this one fit make them kill the person. Remember say for Bible, some men talk lies about Naboth. And because of this one, they stone Naboth for wetin e no do. (1 Ki. 21:8-13) So as e dey for the second part of Leviticus 19:16, person wey de spread lies to spoil another person name fit do anything wey go put the life of another man for danger.

Another thing be say, person fit spread wicked lie about another person because e hate that person. Bible talk for 1 John 3:15 say: “Any person wey hate e brother na killer, and wuna know say no killer go get chance to live forever.” And notice say, after God talk say, “Make you no ever do anything wey go put the life of your neighbor for danger,” e still talk say: “Make you no ever hate your brother for inside your heart.”—Lev. 19:17.

So this command for Leviticus 19:16 wey we de try to explain, give Christians strong advice. We must reject any bad thing for our mind and no ever talk lies to spoil the name of another person. The point be say, if we talk lie to spoil the name of another person because we no like the person or we de jealous the person, e mean say we de do wetin go bring danger to (or, we de “stand up against”) another person. And this one fit show say we hate the person. Make we no ever hate anybody.—Matt. 12:36, 37.