Deuteronomy 17:7

17:7 The witnesses ¹  must be first to begin the execution, and then all the people ²  are to join in afterward. In this way you will purge evil from among you.

John 8:7

8:7 When they persisted in asking him, he stood up straight ³  and replied, ⁴  “Whoever among you is guiltless ⁵  may be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Acts 7:58

7:58 When ⁶  they had driven him out of the city, they began to stone him, ⁷  and the witnesses laid their cloaks ⁸  at the feet of a young man named Saul.

¹ 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).

² tn Heb “the hand of all the people.”

³ tn Or “he straightened up.”

⁴ tn Grk “and said to them.”

⁵ tn Or “sinless.”

⁶ tn Grk “And when.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences, καί (kai) has not been translated here; a new sentence is begun instead.

⁷ sn They began to stone him. The irony of the scene is that the people do exactly what the speech complains about in v. 52.

⁸ tn Or “outer garments.”