Amsal 19:5

19:5 A false witness ¹  will not go unpunished,

and the one who spouts out ²  lies will not escape punishment. ³ 

Ulangan 19:19

19:19 you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge ⁴  evil from among you.

[19:5]  ¹ tn Heb “a witness of lies.” This expression is an attributive genitive: “a lying witness” (cf. CEV “dishonest witnesses”). This is paralleled by “the one who pours out lies.”

[19:5]  ² tn Heb “breathes out”; NAB “utters”; NIV “pours out.”

[19:5]  ³ tn Heb “will not escape” (so NAB, NASB); NIV “will not go free.” Here “punishment” is implied, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:5]  sn This proverb is a general statement, because on occasion there are false witnesses who go unpunished in this life (e.g., Prov 6:19; 14:5, 25; 19:9). The Talmud affirms, “False witnesses are contemptible even to those who hire them” (b. Sanhedrin 29b).

[19:19]  ⁴ 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).