What Does Deuteronomy 19:15 Mean?
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any crookedness, or for any falling short, in it he misses the mark; upon the mouth of two witnesses, or upon the mouth of three witnesses, the word shall stand.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.THE KEY
The same Hebrew verb says a lone witness cannot stand against a person, while the matter stands through two or three witnesses.
THE MEANING
A single voice against you does not make a matter stand as established. Here, a matter takes standing through two or three witnesses, their testimony carried through their mouths. An accusation and an established matter are not the same thing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
One person’s accusation is enough to settle the truth of a charge.
THE ROOT
יָקוּם
yāqūm
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
To rise or stand; in a causative form, to raise or establish.
“word shall stand” in this verse is yāqūm. English gives two different ideas, “rise up” and “be established”, but Hebrew repeats יָקוּם from קום in both clauses. The witness cannot make the charge stand alone; the matter stands through two or three witnesses.
ALSO GROWS
qûm: Rise or stand.
קוּם
This is the root verb behind both the witness’s standing and the matter’s being established.
hēqîm: Raise, set up, establish.
הֵקִים
This causative form shows how something is brought to stand, echoing the matter established through testimony.
דָּבָר
dāḇār
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak or utter; the noun davar also means a word, matter, or thing.
“word shall stand” in this verse is dāḇār. The word rendered “matter” is davar, which can also mean “word.” The verse places the matter’s standing in spoken testimony, carried by the witnesses’ mouths.
ALSO GROWS
dāḇār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
Its range holds spoken word and the matter under judgment together.
dibber: Speak or utter.
דִּבֵּר
This verb from the same root makes the witnesses’ spoken testimony part of how the matter takes form.
עֵד
ʿēd
GROWS FROM
עוּד
ʿ-w-d
To attest or bear witness; the root can also carry the sense of affirming or repeating.
A witness is one who attests; the word points to testimony actively borne, not mere presence. The verse specifies that this attestation must come from more than one witness.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēd: Witness.
עֵד
This is the person whose testimony the verse says cannot stand alone.
ʿēdût: Testimony or witness.
עֵדוּת
The related noun names the testimony that supports the matter.
hēʿîḏ: Testify or attest.
הֵעִיד
This related verb shows witness-bearing as an act of giving testimony.
THE PATTERN
A charge takes standing through corroborated testimony rather than a single person’s word.
Whoever strikes a living soul, the crusher shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses; but one witness shall not answer against any person to make him die.And in your instruction it stands written, that the witness of two people is true.But if he does not hear you, take along with you one or two more, so that upon the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand.THE THREAD
Whoever strikes a living soul, the crusher shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses; but one witness shall not answer against any person to make him die.Numbers 35:30 uses the same Hebrew witness word-family, עֵד (ʿēd), and makes the consequence stark: one witness cannot cause a person to die. It opens Deuteronomy’s threshold further, the need for corroboration keeps a life from resting on a single voice.
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