Deuteronomy 13:5

13:5 As for that prophet or dreamer, ¹  he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from that place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to go. In this way you must purge out evil from within. ² 

Deuteronomy 13:11

13:11 Thus all Israel will hear and be afraid; no longer will they continue to do evil like this among you. ³ 

Deuteronomy 19:19-20

19:19 you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge ⁴  evil from among you. 19:20 The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you.

Deuteronomy 22:21

22:21 the men of her city must bring the young woman to the door of her father’s house and stone her to death, for she has done a disgraceful thing ⁵  in Israel by behaving like a prostitute while living in her father’s house. In this way you will purge ⁶  evil from among you.

Deuteronomy 22:24

22:24 you must bring the two of them to the gate of that city and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry out though in the city and the man because he violated ⁷  his neighbor’s fiancée; ⁸  in this way you will purge ⁹  evil from among you.

¹ tn Heb “or dreamer of dreams.” See note on this expression in v. 1.

² tn Heb “your midst” (so NAB, NRSV). The severity of the judgment here (i.e., capital punishment) is because of the severity of the sin, namely, high treason against the Great King. Idolatry is a violation of the first two commandments (Deut 5:6-10) as well as the spirit and intent of the Shema (Deut 6:4-5).

³ sn Some see in this statement an argument for the deterrent effect of capital punishment (Deut 17:13; 19:20; 21:21).

⁴ 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).

⁵ tn The Hebrew term נְבָלָה (nÿvalah) means more than just something stupid. It refers to a moral lapse so serious as to jeopardize the whole covenant community (cf. Gen 34:7; Judg 19:23; 20:6, 10; Jer 29:23). See C. Pan, NIDOTTE 3:11-13. Cf. NAB “she committed a crime against Israel.”

⁶ tn Heb “burn.” See note on Deut 21:21.

⁷ tn Heb “humbled.”

⁸ tn Heb “wife.”

⁹ tn Heb “burn.” See note on the phrase “purge out” in Deut 21:21.