Deuteronomy 12:31

Summary

The verse instructs the addressee not to worship Yehovah in the manner of the surrounding nations, because those nations perform for their own gods every practice that Yehovah hates, including burning their sons and daughters in fire as offerings to those gods.

Key words

• ta'aseh ("you will do", H6213I) — qal imperfect 2ms, expressing a prohibited future/ongoing action after the negation lo' ("not", H3808).
• to'avat ("abomination of", H8441) — feminine singular construct, opening the chain kol-to'avat Yehovah ("every abomination of Yehovah").
• sane' ("he hates", H8130) — qal perfect 3ms; a completed-form verb used here for a general, standing attitude rather than a single past event.
• 'asu ("they have done", H6213A) — qal perfect 3mp, the completed action of the nations regarding their own gods.
• yisrefu ("they burn", H8313) — qal imperfect 3mp, describing the ongoing/repeated practice of burning.

What the text says

The sentence divides into a prohibition and two causal clauses. The prohibition, lo'-ta'aseh khen la-Yehovah 'elohekha ("you will not do thus to Yehovah your God"), uses the adverb khen ("thus", H3651C) to point back to a manner of worship already described in the preceding context. The first ki clause (H3588A, "for/because") introduces the construct phrase kol-to'avat Yehovah ("every abomination of Yehovah"), further specified by the relative clause 'asher sane' ("which he hates"). The verb 'asu ("they have done") has as its implied subject the foreign nations, and the phrase le-'lohei-hem ("to their gods", H0430J with suffix H9028) marks the recipients of that worship.

A second ki clause, introduced by gam ("also", H1571), specifies the content of the abomination: 'et-benei-hem ve-'et-benotei-hem yisrefu va-'esh le-'lohei-hem ("their sons and their daughters they burn in the fire to their gods"). Here 'et (H0853) marks benei-hem ("their sons") and benotei-hem ("their daughters") as direct objects of the imperfect verb yisrefu, which denotes a repeated or habitual action rather than a single event. The phrase le-'lohei-hem is repeated at the end of the verse, closing the sentence by re-stating the destination of the practice already named earlier.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders sane' ("he hates", perfect) with the aorist ἐμίσησεν ("he hated"), shifting the completed/general-state nuance of the Hebrew perfect toward a simple past. The Vulgate compresses the two Hebrew objects and the verb yisrefu into two participles, offerentes ("offering") and comburentes ("burning"), introducing the verb "offering," which has no separate lexical counterpart in the Hebrew, where only the single verb yisrefu ("they burn") governs both objects. The Hebrew repeats le-'lohei-hem ("to their gods") twice, once after 'asu and once after yisrefu; the Vulgate gives diis suis only once, while the LXX preserves the phrase twice, matching the Hebrew's repetition.