On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses: as the second part of the verse shows, this means simply “two or more witnesses” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Good News Translation). New International Version and New Revised Standard Version “of two or three witnesses” is not good, since in current English this expression actually means “[just] a few.” See 19.15. Alternative translation models for the first part of this verse are “However, you may put that person to death only if two or more people give evidence against him,” or “… two or more people say, ‘I saw that person worshiping idols.’ ”

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 .