Deuteronomy 19:19

Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:15-21 Sentence should never be passed upon the testimony of one witness alone. A false witness should suffer the same punishment which he sought to have inflicted upon the person he accused. Nor could any law be more just. Let all Christians not only be cautious in bearing witness in public, but be careful not to join in private slanders; and let all whose consciences accuse them of crime, without delay flee for refuge to the hope set before them in Jesus Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the marginal references.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

De 19:16-21. Punishment of a False Witness.

16-21. But if convicted of perjury, it will be sufficient for his own condemnation, and his punishment shall be exactly the same as would have overtaken the object of his malignant prosecution. (See on [158]Ex 21:23; see also Le 24:20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother,.... Inflict the same fine or punishment on him he thought to have brought his brother under by his false testimony of him; whether any pecuniary fine, or whipping and scourging, or the loss of a member, or the value of it, or death itself; whether stoning, strangling, burning, or killing with the sword: though, in the case of accusing a priest's daughter of adultery, as Jarchi observes, such were not to be burnt, as would have been her case if proved, but strangled:

so shalt thou put the evil away from among you; the evil man that bears a false testimony of his brother, or the guilt of sin which would be incurred by conniving at him.

Geneva Study Bible

Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. shall ye do] the only Pl. in the passage, confirmed by Sam. LXX; either a clerical error or an instance of the possibility of a writer slipping from one form of address into the other. Read shalt thou.

thought] Heb. zamam, devised.

so shalt thou put away] Frequent in this Code, see on Deuteronomy 13:5 (6).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - Thought. The verb here used (זָמַם) means generally to meditate, to have in mind, to purpose; but it frequently has the subaudition of meditating evil (cf. Psalm 31:37; 37:12; Proverbs 30:32, etc.). Deuteronomy 19:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The two men between whom the dispute lay, the accused and the witness, were to come before Jehovah, viz., before the priests and judges who should be in those days - namely, at the place of the sanctuary, where Jehovah dwelt among His people (cf. Deuteronomy 17:9), and not before the local courts, as Knobel supposes. These judges were to investigate the case most thoroughly (cf. Deuteronomy 13:15); and if the witness had spoken lies, they were to do to him as he thought to do to his brother. The words from "behold" to "his brother" are parenthetical circumstantial clauses: "And, behold, is the witness a false witness, has he spoken a lie against his brother? Ye shall do," etc. זמם, generally to meditate evil. On Deuteronomy 19:20, see Deuteronomy 13:12.