LEV972 False impressions can be highly damaging to one's good reputation. Even innocent acts may engender unfounded gossip if one is not alert to the potentially wrong conclusions that people may draw from them.… First impressions are at times deliberately created for self-serving reasons. It is done without any intent to harm other people but merely to satisfy one's ego. ... [Some] deliberately create[] th[e] impression to enhance [their] own image. Such conduct is unethical and deceptive. The worst kind of false impression is one that is fostered for self-gain at the expense of another party. An individual who affects a blind man's disguise when soliciting money is guilty of unethical conduct and outright fraud. It is the false impression that is inadvertently created, without any deceptive intent, that is most frequently illustrated in the Bible. The other two categories, perpetrated for reasons of prestige or financial gain, required a little elaboration because they are specifically banned by biblical injunctions prohibiting all forms of deception [this verse and verse 17]. According to rabbinical interpretation, the ban covers all misleading words and acts, even if not perpetuated for financial gain (Baba Metzia 58b). Moses made effective use of the objection to the creation of false impressions in his intercession with God on behalf of the people. He forcefully argued that the destruction of the Hebrews in punishment for the worship of the golden calf would lead the Egyptians to the wrong conclusion that the death of the freed Hebrew slaves was premeditated by God at the time of the exodus (Exodus 32:12). Additionally, the intended punishment might also create the false impression that God was impotent to deliver the land which he had promised to Abraham (Deuteronomy 9:28).