This is apostasy. It is idolatry, forsaking Yahweh for other gods. Its punishment is death (see 13.6-11).

Bring forth to your gates: the open square in front of the city gate was the place where business and legal matters were settled (see Josh 20.6; Ruth 4.1). Good News Translation, on the basis that the actual execution, by stoning, would be done outside the town, translates “outside the town.” Contemporary English Version is similar with “outside your town gates.” It is interesting that the Septuagint omits “to your gates”: “You shall take out [from their home] that man or woman and stone them….” On the basis of Lev 24.14 and Num 15.36, some commentators hold that the execution itself would be outside the town, after the person had been condemned in the public square inside the gates. Deut 22.24 seems to support this (see also 21.19-21). A translator should feel free to make it clear that the stoning was done outside the town. For “town” see 1.1.

This evil thing: some word like “crime” or “terrible sin,” may serve.

You shall stone that man or woman to death with stones: see 13.10.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• Then take the man or woman who has done this crime outside the town gates and throw stones at that person until that person dies.

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 .