Concerning the punishment for lying or bringing a false testimony against your brethren, both the Priestly source and the Deuteronomic source offer two contradictory verdicts.
In the Deuteronomic source (Deut 19:16-19) the individual that has lied or has bared false witness against his brethren is to suffer that which he lied about: “yo shall do to him as he schemed to do to his brother. So you shall burn away what is bad from among you.”
Inline with the sacrificial emphasis throughout the Priestly source, the punishment for lying or bringing a false testimony against one’s brethren is that “he shall bring his guilt-offering to Yahweh: an unblemished ram from the flock.”
What’s interesting is that when Leviticus 5:20-26 (6:1-7 in many English translations) is compared to Numbers 5:5-10, we see that the latter passage makes allowance for things not considered in the former. It seems strange that the “omniscient” Yahweh wouldn’t have inspired his authors to include these provisions to begin with. Curious, too, is that one of the stipulations in Numbers is that if the wronged party dies and has no living relative, the payment
–and the meat from the “guilt offering”–go to the priest!
Guys, I don’t think this is a contradiction (many, many other source-critical contradictions notwithstanding). Leviticus 5:20-26, specifically verses 21 to 24, is not referring at all to perjury.
“When a person sins and commits a trespass against the LORD by dealing deceitfully with his fellow in the matter of a deposit or a pledge, or through robbery, or by defrauding his fellow, or by finding something lost and lying about it; if he swears falsely regarding any one of the various things that one may do and sin thereby— when one has thus sinned and, realizing his guilt, would restore that which he got through robbery or fraud, or the deposit that was entrusted to him, or the lost thing that he found, or anything else about which he swore falsely, he shall repay the principal amount and add a fifth part to it. He shall pay it to its owner when he realizes his guilt.” (NJPS)
Swearing falsely here refers to some sort of commercial transaction.