This Mishnah discusses a situation in which someone approached two witnesses to testify in a monetary case he was dealing with. He wanted them to testify about multiple things, multiple different claims, and a swear happened. How does it work in terms of the korbanot (offerings) that the person has to bring if he wasn't telling the truth when he claimed he didn't know anything? If there are multiple claims, is it one korban or multiple korbanot, as we'll explain?
The Mishnah says: Someone says to two witnesses, “I put you under oath. If you don't come and testify for me to help me in a case involving a deposit I left with so-and-so, number one, or a loan. Also, a loan that I lent him, number three, and something that was stolen from me, something that I lost and he found.” So the person is making the witnesses swear one oath, but he's asking them about four different claims at once. If the witnesses answer, “We swear that we don't know anything about testimony for you,” they're obligated to bring only one korban, because they made one false swear. They said one line, and that false swear is one swear.
But if they answer him, “We don't know any testimony about this person regarding the deposit, the loan, something stolen from you, and something lost,” they're obligated to bring a separate korban for each individual claim they deny. They could simply have said, as we mentioned earlier, “We swear that we don't have any testimony about you.” But the fact that they list each claim separately means they're basically making their own swear for each claim. Since each one of them is now wrong, they have to bring a korban for each false claim they make.
The next part of the Mishnah discusses several different items that are all part of one claim. How does that work? In the last case, we spoke about one swear that was about several different claims. Here we'll talk about one swear that's about one claim that has different items connected to it.
The Mishnah says: This person says to two witnesses, “I'm putting you under oath that if you don't come and testify for me that I have a deposit of wheat, barley, and spelt in so-and-so's possession.” They answer him, “We swear that we don't know any testimony for you.” They're only obligated to bring one korban, because they made only one false swear. But if they answer, “We swear, we don't know any testimony for you. We don't know any testimony regarding someone having possession of your wheat, your barley, and your spelt, and all of these cases.” He listed them off. They're obligated to bring a separate korban for each and every one of the items they denied knowing, like before. The fact that they choose to mention each item individually means they're making a swear about each and every item being claimed. So the witnesses are showing that they're making a separate oath, a separate swear, for each item that's being mentioned.