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 ¹  evil from among you.

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¹ 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).