Le Deutéronome 17:7 Commentaire : Tze'enah Ure'enah, Ibn Ezra & Sifrei Devarim

“Sweep out evil from your midst” [17:7]. The Torah tells us to seek the evildoers in order to punish them. If he is guilty of the death penalty, then he should be put to death. Sweep him away, just as one sweeps away the leaven. Therefore, the verse says, “sweep out,” just as it written concerning the leaven, sweeping out the leaven. They should search in each city what people are doing, so that they should not commit sins, just like one searches for the leaven in order to sweep it out. Therefore, it is also written “from your midst.” This means, from your relatives. You should not flatter your relatives when they do something evil.⁶Bahya, Deuteronomy, 17:2.

the hand of the witnesses that is, the hand of every one of the witnesses. Compare, “the heart of the people melted” [Joshua 7: 5], and many similar instances.

I have already explained the word eliminate [comment on Numbers 24: 22].