Verse 16 still concerns the legal situation introduced in the previous verse.

Go up and down as a slanderer: more literally, “go about as a talebearer.” New Jerusalem Bible takes this to mean “deal basely with.” But most commentators accept the traditional understanding, “to gossip” or “to spread lies.”

Among your people: Good News Translation takes this in the most general sense possible, as in the previous verse. But many modern versions interpret it with varying degrees of strictness: “your countrymen” (New Jerusalem Bible) or “your own family” (New Jerusalem Bible). New English Bible translates “your father’s kin.”

Stand forth against the life of your neighbor: literally “stand upon (or, against) the blood of your neighbor.” The exact meaning of this expression is uncertain. New Jerusalem Bible translates rather obscurely, “Do not profit by the blood of your neighbor.” But most commentators take it to mean that, whenever a person is in danger of losing his life as the result of a legal case, a witness should not fail to speak out. It is also possible that it means that a person should avoid giving false testimony that would result in the death sentence on a fellow Israelite, and this seems to be the meaning expressed in Revised Standard Version. Translators are free to choose either interpretation, but Revised Standard Version seems more likely.

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .