Deuteronomy 19:15-21
Christian Standard Bible
Witnesses in Court
15 “One witness cannot establish any iniquity or sin against a person, whatever that person has done.(A) A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.(B)
16 “If a malicious witness(C) testifies against someone accusing him of a crime, 17 the two people in the dispute are to stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and judges in authority at that time. 18 The judges are to make a careful investigation, and if the witness turns out to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother, 19 you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from you. 20 Then everyone else will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything evil like this among you.(D) 21 Do not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.(E)
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Deuteronomy 19:15-21
New English Translation
15 A single witness may not testify[a] against another person for any trespass or sin that he commits. A matter may be legally established[b] only on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 16 If a false[c] witness testifies against another person and accuses him of a crime,[d] 17 then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges[e] who will be in office in those days. 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,[f] 19 you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge[g] the evil from among you. 20 The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you. 21 You must not show pity; the principle will be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot.[h]
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- Deuteronomy 19:15 tn Heb “rise up” (likewise in v. 16).
- Deuteronomy 19:15 tn Heb “may stand.”
- Deuteronomy 19:16 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.
- Deuteronomy 19:16 tn Or “rebellion.” Rebellion against God’s law is in view (cf. NAB “of a defection from the law”).
- Deuteronomy 19:17 tn The appositional construction (“before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges”) indicates that these human agents represented the Lord himself, that is, they stood in his place (cf. Deut 16:18-20; 17:8-9).
- Deuteronomy 19:18 tn Heb “his brother” (also in the following verse).
- Deuteronomy 19:19 tn Heb “you will burn out” (בִּעַרְתָּ, biʿarta). 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).
- Deuteronomy 19:21 sn This kind of justice is commonly called lex talionis or “measure for measure” (cf. Exod 21:23-25; Lev 24:19-20). It is likely that it is the principle that is important and not always a strict application. That is, the punishment should fit the crime and it may do so by the payment of fines or other suitable and equitable compensation (cf. Exod 22:21; Num 35:31). See T. S. Frymer-Kensky, “Tit for Tat: The Principle of Equal Retribution in Near Eastern and Biblical Law,” BA 43 (1980): 230-34.
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