19:15 A single witness may not testify 14 against another person for any trespass or sin that he commits. A matter may be legally established 15 only on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
1 tn Or “you.” A number of English versions treat the remainder of this verse and v. 17 as direct discourse rather than indirect discourse (cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
2 tn Heb “brothers.” The term “brothers” could, in English, be understood to refer to siblings, so “fellow citizens” has been used in the translation.
3 tn The Hebrew word צֶדֶק (tsedeq, “fairly”) carries the basic idea of conformity to a norm of expected behavior or character, one established by God himself. Fair judgment adheres strictly to that norm or standard (see D. Reimer, NIDOTTE 3:750).
4 tn Heb “between a man and his brother.”
5 tn Heb “his stranger” or “his sojourner”; NAB, NIV “an alien”; NRSV “resident alien.” The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger) commonly means “foreigner.”
6 tn The Hebrew verb used here (חָמַד, khamad) is different from the one translated “crave” (אָוַה, ’avah) in the next line. The former has sexual overtones (“lust” or the like; cf. Song of Sol 2:3) whereas the latter has more the idea of a desire or craving for material things.
7 tn Heb “your neighbor’s.” See note on the term “fellow man” in v. 19.
8 tn Heb “your neighbor’s.” The pronoun is used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
9 tn Heb “or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
10 tn Heb “border.”
11 tn Heb “and this is the word pertaining to the one who kills who flees there and lives.”
12 tn Heb “who strikes his neighbor without knowledge.”
13 tn Heb “yesterday and a third (day)” (likewise in v. 6). The point is that there was no animosity between the two parties at the time of the accident and therefore no motive for the killing. Cf. NAB “had previously borne no malice”; NRSV “had not been at enmity before.”
14 tn Heb “rise up” (likewise in v. 16).
15 tn Heb “may stand.”
16 tn Heb “his neighbor.”
17 tc For MT reading שָׁגַל (shagal, “ravish; violate”), the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate presume the less violent שָׁכַב (shakhav, “lie with”). The unexpected counterpart to betrothal here favors the originality of the MT.