Deuteronomy 19:17-19
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Context19:17 then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges 1 who will be in office in those days. 19:18 The judges will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if the witness should prove to be false and to have given false testimony against the accused, 2 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.
1 tn The appositional construction (“before the
2 tn Heb “his brother” (also in the following verse).
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).