Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 13:9 
Context13:9 Instead, you must kill him without fail! 1 Your own hand must be the first to strike him, 2 and then the hands of the whole community.
Deuteronomy 19:12
Context19:12 The elders of his own city must send for him and remove him from there to deliver him over to the blood avenger 3 to die.
1 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with the words “without fail” (cf. NIV “you must certainly put him to death”).
2 tn Heb “to put him to death,” but this is misleading in English for such an action would leave nothing for the others to do.
3 tn The גֹאֵל הַדָּם (go’el haddam, “avenger of blood”) would ordinarily be a member of the victim’s family who, after due process of law, was invited to initiate the process of execution (cf. Num 35:16-28). See R. Hubbard, NIDOTTE 1:789-94.
