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 17:7

17:7 The witnesses ³  must be first to begin the execution, and then all the people ⁴  are to join in afterward. In this way you will purge evil from among you.

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 ⁵  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 tn Heb “the hand of the witnesses.” This means the two or three witnesses are to throw the first stones (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

⁴ tn Heb “the hand of all the people.”

⁵ 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).