witness

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “witness” in English is translated as “truly have seen” in Highland Popoluca, as “telling the truth regarding something” (Eastern Highland Otomi), as “know something” in Lalana Chinantec, as “verily know something to be the truth” in San Mateo del Mar Huave, as “we ourselves saw this,” in Desano, as “tell the truth about something” in Eastern Highland Otomi, as “know something is true because of seeing it” in Teutila Cuicatec. (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

So you shall purge the evil from your midst

For the phrase “So you shall purge the evil from your midst,” see 1 Corinthians 4:13.

Note that this quote in the New Testament is not taken from the Hebrew Bible but from the Greek Septuagint (LXX) which translates into English as “And you shall remove the evil one from yourselves.” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)

They sacrificed to demons not God . . .

For the phrase “They sacrificed to demons, not God, to deities they had never known,” see 1 Corinthians 10:20.

Note that this quote in the New Testament is not taken from the Hebrew Bible but from the Greek Septuagint (LXX) which translates into English as “They sacrificed to demons and not to God, to gods they did not know.” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 17:7

The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him: the witnesses, whose testimony led to the person’s condemnation, were to be the first to throw stones at the condemned person.

Afterward the hand of all the people: for both groups, normal English usage is “The witnesses will be the first to throw stones at the condemned person, and after that all the other people are to do the same” (see also Good News Translation).

For the rest of the verse, see 13.5.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .