Deuteronomy 19:13

19:13 You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent ¹  from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

Deuteronomy 19:19

19:19 you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge ²  evil from among you.

Deuteronomy 21:9

21:9 In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before ³  the Lord.

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¹ sn Purge out the blood of the innocent. Because of the corporate nature of Israel’s community life, the whole community shared in the guilt of unavenged murder unless and until vengeance occurred. Only this would restore spiritual and moral equilibrium (Num 35:33).

² tn Heb “you will burn out” (בִּעַרְתָּ, bi’arta). Like a cancer, unavenged sin would infect the whole community. It must, therefore, be excised by the purging out of its perpetrators who, presumably, remained unrepentant (cf. Deut 13:6; 17:7, 12; 21:21; 22:21-22, 24; 24:7).

³ tn Heb “in the eyes of” (so ASV, NASB, NIV).