Deuteronomy13:12–18

Where the English smooths the original

• כִּֽי־ Hebrew opens with the bare conditional particle כִּי (kî), “if / when” — and then leaves the sentence hanging, throwing the door open to the report that follows in v. 13. The BSB’s smooth “If, regarding one of the cities” supplies a structure the abrupt Hebrew does not.
• בְּאַחַ֣ת The phrase is literally “in one of your cities” (בְּאַחַת, preposition bə- + “one”). As Keil notes, šāmaʻ bə- “of one” is impossible Hebrew; the object of the report has been pulled forward out of the subordinate clause and made prominent — an inversion the English flattens into “regarding one of the cities.”
• לָשֶׁ֥בֶת The infinitive לָשֶׁבֶת (from yāšaḇ, “to sit / dwell”) — “to dwell there” — is the same root that names the city’s yōšəḇê, its “inhabitants,” in vv. 13 and 15. The gift of a place to dwell becomes the very place that must be emptied of dwellers.
• תִשְׁמַ֞ע תִשְׁמַע (tišmaʻ) is the same verb šāmaʻ, “to hear / heed / obey,” that closes the whole unit in v. 18 (“when you obey the voice of the LORD”). Here it is mere rumor reaching the ear; there it is covenant obedience — the same word bracketing the law.

Where the English smooths the original

• בְלִיַּ֙עַל֙ The Hebrew leads with the noun בְלִיַּעַל (bəlîyaʻal), “worthlessness” — most likely bəlî (“without”) + yaʻal (“profit / worth”). “Sons of Belial” reads in the AV like a proper name; the Pulpit Commentary and Barnes both insist the literal force is “sons of worthlessness.” It is the first occurrence of the phrase in Scripture.
• יָצְא֞וּ יָצְאוּ (yāṣəʼû), “have gone out,” combined with “from your midst,” carries the suggestion of apostasy, not geography. Keil reduces it to “merely to rise up, to go forth”; Poole sharpens it: a departure “not in place… but in heart, doctrine, and worship” — the same idiom John uses, “they went out from us.”
• וַיַּדִּ֛יחוּ The verb וַיַּדִּיחוּ (Hiphil of nādaḥ, “to push / drive away”) is rendered mildly as “led astray.” It is the same verb used of the seducers in vv. 5 and 10 (“thrust”); the Pulpit Commentary notes it means “drawing away with some degree of force… not mere easy seduction, but impulsion by strong persuasion.”
• אֲחֵרִ֖ים אֲחֵרִים (ʼăḥêrîm), “other,” is from a root meaning “hinder / behind” — gods that come after, in the train of Yahweh, usurpers. The clause “which you have not known” is, as Gill notes, not the seducers’ words but the LORD’s own parenthetical verdict on the emptiness of those gods.

Where the English smooths the original

• וְדָרַשְׁתָּ֧ Three near-synonymous verbs are piled up — וְדָרַשְׁתָּ (dāraš, “seek / inquire”), ḥāqar (“investigate, penetrate”), šāʼal (“ask”). The BSB keeps all three, but the heaping itself is the point: the Hebrew legislates an exhaustive, three-fold inquest before any sentence — no execution on rumor.
• הֵיטֵ֑ב הֵיטֵב (hêṭêḇ) is an infinitive absolute functioning adverbially — “well / thoroughly,” as Keil notes (cf. Deut 9:21). It governs all three verbs at once: not merely inquire, but inquire to the bottom.
• אֱמֶת֙ אֱמֶת (ʼĕmeṯ), “truth,” paired with nāḵôn (Niphal of kûn, “be established, firm”) — the BSB’s “established with certainty” fuses the noun and the participle. The standard is forensic stability: the thing must be firm, founded, not merely alleged (cf. Deut 17:4).
• הַתּוֹעֵבָ֥ה הַתּוֹעֵבָה (hattôʻêḇāh), “the abomination” — a near-technical term for what is morally and cultically loathsome to the LORD. The definite article makes it the abomination: idolatry by covenant people is the abomination par excellence.

Where the English smooths the original

• הַכֵּ֣ה The infinitive absolute הַכֵּה stands before the finite verb takkeh (both from nākāh, “to strike”) — a Hebrew doubling for emphasis that the BSB renders “you must surely put… to the sword.” The construction is the language of certain, unsparing execution.
• לְפִי־ Literally “to the פִּי (peh, ‘mouth’) of the sword.” The Pulpit Commentary catches the buried image: the sword devouring like a ravenous beast, “biting and devouring” — “the edge of the sword” is a polished idiom that loses the open mouth swallowing the city.
• הַחֲרֵ֨ם הַחֲרֵם (haḥărêm, Hiphil imperative of ḥāram) is the technical verb of the ḥerem — to “devote to destruction,” to place under the irrevocable ban. The Cambridge editors note this is “the hardest form of the ḥerem,” here pronounced not on a pagan enemy but on an apostate Israelite town.
• בְּהֶמְתָּ֖הּ בְּהֶמְתָּהּ (bəhemtāh, from bəhêmâh, “beast”), “its livestock,” extends the ban even to the animals — the same totality the Canaanite ḥerem bore (cf. the cattle spared and condemned at Jericho/Ai, Josh 6–8). Keil notes “the cattle thereof” is still governed by the opening “thou shalt smite,” so the whole living town, human and beast, falls under one sentence. Held honestly: the Cambridge editors flag that this clause is absent from the LXX and may be “a later addition to the law” — a candid text-critical caveat the BSB's Hebrew base does not show, and which does not soften the totality where the clause stands.

Where the English smooths the original

• רְחֹבָהּ֒ רְחֹבָהּ (rəḥōḇāh) is the broad open place, not a “street.” The Cambridge editors explain: ancient Canaanite streets were narrow, but every town had a broad place just inside the gate where courts and consultations were held. The plunder is heaped in the very square where the city did its public business.
• כָּלִ֔יל כָּלִיל (kālîl), “whole-offering / holocaust,” is the decisive word the BSB renders “as a whole burnt offering.” Barnes and the Pulpit Commentary prefer “as a whole offering unto Jehovah.” The destruction is reframed as sacrifice: the city ascends to God entire, like the rare kālîl offering wholly consumed (Lev 6:22).
• תֵּ֣ל תֵּל (têl) — the “mound / tell.” The Cambridge editors note the same Arabic tell applied to the mounds on which living cities stand, “their dead selves.” A vanishingly rare word (only five verses), it makes this the archetypal verse of the ruined-forever city — its very rarity strengthens the verbal links out to Joshua and Jeremiah.
• תִבָּנֶ֖ה תִבָּנֶה (tibbāneh, Niphal of bānāh, “to build”) with the negative — “it shall not be rebuilt.” The verb of building is denied forever (ʻôlām). The town is unmade as a permanent monument; JFB: “a permanent monument of the divine justice, and a beacon for the warning and terror of posterity.”

Where the English smooths the original

• הַחֵ֑רֶם הַחֵרֶם (haḥêrem) — the noun ḥerem, the “devoted thing,” cognate with the verb ḥāram in v. 15. The Cambridge editors note that both the banning and the thing banned were called ḥerem. To pocket any of it is to make oneself ḥerem — this is precisely Achan’s sin (Josh 7).
• יִדְבַּ֧ק יִדְבַּק (yiḏbaq, from dāḇaq, “to cling, cleave”) — “let nothing of the ban cling to your hand.” The word ordinarily describes covenant devotion (cleaving to the LORD, Deut 10:20); here it is inverted — nothing accursed may cleave instead. The BSB’s “shall cling” keeps the image.
• יָשׁ֨וּב יָשׁוּב (yāšûḇ, from šûḇ, “to turn / return”) — the LORD “turns” from His burning anger. The same verb that elsewhere calls Israel to repent (turn back) is here used of God turning from wrath: obedience to the ban moves the divine disposition itself.
• רַחֲמִים֙ רַחֲמִים (raḥămîm), “compassion / tender mercies,” is from the root for womb (reḥem) — visceral, motherly mercy. Paired immediately with the verb riḥamḵā (rāḥam, “to have compassion”), the Hebrew sounds the same root twice; the BSB splits it into “grant you mercy” and “show you compassion.”

Where the English smooths the original

• כִּ֣י כִּי (kî), “because / when,” opens the verse exactly as it opened v. 12 — bracketing the whole law between two kî clauses. The unit begins “if you hear a report of idolatry” and ends “because you obey the LORD’s voice”: the same particle, inverted from rumor to obedience.
• תִשְׁמַ֗ע תִשְׁמַע (tišmaʻ) is again šāmaʻ, “to hear,” the very verb of v. 12 (“you hear it said”). Here it is “hear the voice of the LORD” — i.e., obey. The same hearing that picks up a report of treason is, rightly directed, the hearing of covenant loyalty. The BSB’s “obey” captures the imperatival sense the bare “hear” carries with bəqôl.
• הַיָּשָׁ֔ר הַיָּשָׁר (hayyāšār, H3477), “the right / the straight,” from yāšar, “to be straight, level.” “The right in the eyes of the LORD” is the load-bearing Deuteronomic standard (Deut 6:18; 12:25, 28), and it is the exact phrase the book of Judges inverts as its refrain of anarchy — every man did “what was right in his own eyes” (Judg 17:6; 21:25). The same eyes that, rightly directed, must see straight by God's measure are the eyes the apostate city blinded. The Cambridge editors note the Samaritan and LXX append “and good,” widening the bare “right” toward the fuller Deuteronomic pair “right and good.”