In Masechet Shevuot, Perek Heh, Mishnah Bet, we will talk more about the Shevuat HaPikadon, the swear of deposit. The Mishnah says, “Shevuat HaPikadon, Ketzad”—what’s the case of a swear of deposit where a person has to bring a korban (offering) to Hashem for swearing falsely? “Amar lo”—if someone says to him, “Ten li pikdoni sheyesh li b'yadecha”—give me the deposit, give me the item that I left by you for safekeeping. The Mishnah says to him, “Shevuah she'ein lecha b'yadi,” and then the person answers him: “I swear I don’t have anything of yours; I don’t have anything by me.”
Or, “she'amar lo, ein lecha b'yadi”—he simply says, without saying a swear, “You have nothing by me; you never left anything by me.” Then the person making the claim answers him, “Mashbi'acha ani”—I am making a swear on you that whatever you just said is true, that you’re claiming you don’t have anything of mine. And he answers, “Ve'amar amen”—and he says Amen. In either of these cases, if the person later came and admitted that he had lied and sworn falsely earlier, he’s obligated to bring a korban to Hashem as a kapara, to atone for his false swear.
But if the person making the claim put a swear on him five different times, whether in court or out of court, and the other person continuously denied the claim each time and swore falsely, the person who swore falsely is obligated to bring a separate korban to Hashem for each and every time he denied it and made that swear. Rabbi Shimon asks, “What’s the reason for this? The court dismissed the claim after the first false oath, so why would the second, third, fourth, and fifth ones matter?” In other words, a person would be obligated to bring a korban to Hashem for a false oath only if that swear freed him from paying the money being claimed from him. That is the nature of the first denial. So the later denials don’t really have any point at that time. There’s no more claim against him in court because he doesn’t owe any money. He already took care of that potential money he owed with the first swear. So Rabbi Shimon asks, why does he need to bring five different korbanot for each of those denials? Only the first denial was really effective in doing anything for him.
The answer is the Mishnah, because after each one of the swears that he made, he could have gone back and admitted that he lied, and the court would have simply made him pay. So each denial is meaningful because it continuously enables him not to pay. So that alone, say the hachamim (the sages)—his denying the claim and now holding back the money that he really owes—is significant enough to warrant a false oath, to warrant him bringing a new korban, a second, third, fourth, and fifth korban to Hashem.