False witness is but slander carried into a court of justice, and against this sin the ninth command-
SLAVE, SLAVERY
SMYKXA
653
ment is directed (Ex 20" ; cf. 23', Dt 5»). Its pruvaleiice in the Kast (Ezr 4", Lk 3" 19*) necessi- tated great severity in punishing it, and in tlie IVntateucU the law of retaliation is literally enforced regarding it (Dt 19'*"'"). To avoid mis- carriage of justice, the testimony of one person was nut accepted as auflicieiit by the Jewish law (Nu 35*', Dt IT'' 19"), and this rule was adopte<l in the Christian Church (2 Co 13', 1 Ti 5"* ; cf. Mt IS'"). When the charge involved a death sentence, the witnesses liad to be first in carrying it out (Dt 17' ; cf. Ac 7"). Yet false witnesses could be found (l)n 6«, 1 K 21'°), as against Jesus (Mt 2f)»»- «», Mk I4»-"), Stephen (Ac 6'^), and Paul (Ac 24'^).
The heinousness of slander is shown by the use of the same lir. word in NT for sins of specc li against God and man (Mt 27^, Lk 23^» 22<», Ac 13" 18" 20", 1 Ti 1-=", Tit 3-, Ja 2") ; by our Lords warning about the unpardonable sin (Mt 12-", Mk 3", Lk 12'") ; and by the name 6 5id/3o\os, given to the spirit of evil, who is represented as playing the part of slanderer against .fob (Job 1°'"), Josliua the high priest (Zee 3'), and Christians (Kev 12'").
A. E. Garvie.
SLAVE, SLAVERY.— See Servant.
SLAVONIC VERSIONS.— See Veksions.
SLEIGHT.— Eph 4>< 'By the sleight of men' ((?v TT) Ku,iti(f [ Tiscli. WH Kvj3i<f] Twv dvOpunroii', lit. ' by tile (iiee-playing of men,' from avjios, a cube, die). Tindale translates ' by the wylynes of men,' which is tlie meaning of AV ' sleight.' It is of the same root as ' sly,' as if for slt/th = ' slyness.' Cf. Ridley, Works, 31, 'The slcigiits and shifts which craft and wit can invent'; Tymme's Calvin's Gencsii, 5<)9, ' Nowe, seeing a lye is damnable of it selfe, therein she sinned the more, that she durst iiso such decciveable slightes in so holy a matter.' But the word properly means a device, and may be used in a good sense, as Udall's Erasmus' Paraph, i. lOG, ' If this invencion and sleight be brought unto your presidente, we will perswade liyni, and deliver you from all daunger of this matter'; Elyot, Govemour, i. 173, 'It hath ben Bene that the waiker persone by the sleight of wrastlyng, hath overthrowen the stronger. We Btill have the phrase 'sleight of hand.'
The adverb sleightly is used in tlie Preface to AV, 'Now, when the father of their Church, who gladly would healc the soarc of thedaugliter of his pcoide softly and sli'ightly, and make the best of It, findeth so great fault with (litm for their oddes and jarring, we hope the children have no great cause to vaunt of their uniformitie.'
There is no connexion cither in origin or mean- ing with 'slight,' 'slightly,' which means originally
•flat,' 'smuuth.' J.Hastings.
SLIME.— See Bitu.men and MoUTAR.
SLING (y^i5 keln', <r(pcyS6yri). — A weapon used by the Hebrews, Eg3'ptians, As.syrians, and other Ea.stern nations, from whom it passed over to the later Greeks. During the best days of Bome, Blingcrs appeared only among the foreign auxili- aries — Greek, Syrian, and African. We know nothing delinite concerning the form of the Hebrew sling, but on the Assyr. reliefs slings are shown, niaje of two thongs, one of which was doubtless released in the act of discharging the stone. The hollow in which the stone was placed was called the ham/ [-2 kajili, 'the bent hand'). Smooth stones (I S 17", Job41«'i»i)'' were used by the Helirews, Btonivs or leaden bullets (;to\i//i5i5es) by the Uonian auxiliaries, as missiles. Slings were emi)loycd in
* Cf. ' Tcretes lapidei de lunda vel (ustibalo deatinati (Vege- Uui, L lOX
attacking fortresses (2 K 3^, 1 Mac 6"). Among the Israelites the Benjamite leit-lianded slingera were famous (Jg '20'", 1 Ch 12-) ; David the Juda'an ajipears as a slinger only in his contest with Goliath (1 S 17*, Sir 47*). From the prominence given to David's 'staff' in IS 17"- ** it is not improbable that his 'sling' was mounted on a stall'; the weapon may in fact have been that descrilied by Vegetius, iii. 14, ' Fustibalns fustis est longus pedibus quattuor, cui per medium ligatur funda de corio, et utraq^ue manu inipulsus prope ad instar onagri (a powerlul military engine) dirijrit saxa.' The 'sling' of v." is a gloss on 'stall/ just as ' scrip ' is a gloss on ' shepherd's bag.' The sling- stones might be carried either in a bag (so David, 1 S 17") or in the bosom of the outer garment (so the Bonian slingers). Abigail (1 S 25-'-') predicts that God will take the lives of David's enemies out of the bag or purse (■'ns zeror) in which He holds the lives of men, and will 'sling them out,' i.e. cast tliem away. In Zee 9" hailstones are spoken of as God's slingstones (tr. ' and [His] slingstones shall devour and subdue'; cf. v.'* ' His arrow shall go forth as the lightning'). On the dillicult verse Pr 26' ' As he that bindcth a stime in a sling' (nira margemah), see Toy in Intcmat. Crit. Comrn. and RV ('a heap of stones').