Deuteronomy 19:16

19:16 If a false ¹  witness testifies against another person and accuses him of a crime, ² 

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 ³  evil from among you.

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¹ tn Heb “violent” (חָמָס, khamas). This is a witness whose motivation from the beginning is to do harm to the accused and who, therefore, resorts to calumny and deceit. See I. Swart and C. VanDam, NIDOTTE 2:177-80.

² tn Or “rebellion.” Rebellion against God’s law is in view (cf. NAB “of a defection from the law”).

³ 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).