Deuteronomy 19:15
לֹֽא־יָקוּם עֵד אֶחָד בְּאִישׁ לְכָל־עָוֹן וּלְכָל־חַטָּאת בְּכָל־חֵטְא אֲשֶׁר יֶֽחֱטָא עַל־פִּי׀ שְׁנֵי עֵדִים אוֹ עַל־פִּי שְׁלֹשָֽׁה־עֵדִים יָקוּם דָּבָֽר׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
לֹֽא־יָקוּם֩ עֵ֨ד אֶחָ֜ד בְּאִ֗ישׁ לְכָל־עָוֹן֙ וּלְכָל־חַטָּ֔את בְּכָל־חֵ֖טְא אֲשֶׁ֣ר יֶֽחֱטָ֑א עַל־פִּ֣י׀ שְׁנֵ֣י עֵדִ֗ים א֛וֹ עַל־פִּ֥י שְׁלֹשָֽׁה־עֵדִ֖ים יָק֥וּם דָּבָֽר׃
Οὐκ ἐμμενεῖ μάρτυς εἷς μαρτυρῆσαι κατὰ ἀνθρώπου κατὰ πᾶσαν ἀδικίαν καὶ κατὰ πᾶν ἁμάρτημα καὶ κατὰ πᾶσαν ἁμαρτίαν ἣν ἂν ἁμάρτῃ· ἐπὶ στόματος δύο μαρτύρων καὶ ἐπὶ στόματος τριῶν μαρτύρων στήσεται πᾶν ῥῆμα.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Non stabit testis unus contra aliquem, quidquid illud peccati, et facinoris fuerit: sed in ore duorum aut trium testium stabit omne verbum.
Un solo testigo no se levantará contra el hombre por cualquier iniquidad o por cualquier pecado que cometa. En boca de dos testigos, o en boca de tres testigos, se establecerá un asunto.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
No valdrá un testigo contra ninguno en cualquier delito, ó en cualquier pecado, en cualquier pecado que se cometiere. En el dicho de dos testigos, ó en el dicho de tres testigos consistirá el negocio.
A lone witness is not sufficient to establish any wrongdoing or sin against a man, regardless of what offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse states that a single witness ('ed 'echad, H5707/H0259) is not sufficient to establish any wrongdoing committed by a person. It closes by stating that a matter is established only on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Key words
- ya.Kum ("he will stand", H6965I) — qal imperfect, used twice: negated at the start (a single witness "will not stand") and affirmed at the end (a matter "will stand"), forming a frame around the verse.
- 'ed 'e.Chad ("a witness… one", H5707/H0259) — the numeral 'echad modifies 'ed, specifying a single, solitary witness as insufficient.
- khol ("any", H3605) construct — repeated three times (lines 8, 12, 15), each governing a different noun for wrongdoing, stacking the range of possible offenses.
- 'a.Von / cha.Tat / chet' ("iniquity" / "sin" / "sin", H5771G/H2403B/H2399) — three distinct nouns for wrongdoing, each introduced with its own preposition (le, le, be), covering the full category of offenses.
- pi ("mouth of", H6310I) construct — used twice with shenei ("two", H8147) and shloshah ("three", H7969), the idiom "mouth of two/three witnesses" meaning their spoken testimony.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built as an inclusio: it opens with the negated verb lo'-yaKum ("he will not stand") applied to 'ed 'echad ("one witness"), and closes with the same root yaKum ("it will stand") applied to davar ("a matter", H1697G). The single witness cannot "stand" (be legally valid), but a davar can "stand" (be legally established) when supported by two or three. This repetition of the same verb for opposite outcomes is a feature of the Hebrew that a translation using different verbs (e.g., "sufficient" vs. "established") does not preserve.
Between these two poles, the text piles up near-synonyms for wrongdoing — 'avon, chatat, chet' — each attached with a preposition (le-khol, u-le-khol, be-khol), followed by the relative clause 'asher yechkata' ("which he might sin", H0834A + H2398, imperfect). This stacking emphasizes that the one-witness rule applies to every category of offense, not only to a specific type. The phrase 'al pi ("upon the mouth of", H5921A + H6310I) is a construct idiom referring to spoken testimony, repeated for both "two witnesses" and "three witnesses," showing that either number satisfies the requirement.
Differences between versions
The LXX adds the infinitive μαρτυρῆσαι ("to testify"), an explicit verb not present in the Hebrew, which only implies testimony through 'ed ("witness"). The Vulgate compresses the Hebrew's three terms for wrongdoing ('avon, chatat, chet') into two nouns, peccati and facinoris, reducing the enumerated categories found in the Hebrew and reflected more fully in the LXX's ἀδικίαν, ἁμάρτημα, and ἁμαρτίαν.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.