Deuteronomy 13:16
וְאֶת־כָּל־שְׁלָלָהּ תִּקְבֹּץ אֶל־תּוֹךְ רְחֹבָהּ וְשָׂרַפְתָּ בָאֵשׁ אֶת־הָעִיר וְאֶת־כָּל־שְׁלָלָהּ כָּלִיל לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ וְהָיְתָה תֵּל עוֹלָם לֹא תִבָּנֶה עֽוֹד׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְאֶת־כָּל־שְׁלָלָ֗הּ תִּקְבֹּץ֮ אֶל־תּ֣וֹךְ רְחֹבָהּ֒ וְשָׂרַפְתָּ֨ בָאֵ֜שׁ אֶת־הָעִ֤יר וְאֶת־כָּל־שְׁלָלָהּ֙ כָּלִ֔יל לַיהוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ וְהָיְתָה֙ תֵּ֣ל עוֹלָ֔ם לֹ֥א תִבָּנֶ֖ה עֽוֹד׃
καὶ πάντα τὰ σκῦλα αὐτῆς συνάξεις εἰς τὰς διόδους αὐτῆς, καὶ ἐνπρήσεις τὴν πόλιν ἐν πυρὶ καὶ πάντα τὰ σκῦλα αὐτῆς πανδημεὶ ἐναντίον Κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου· καὶ ἔσται ἀοίκητος εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, οὐκ ἀνοικοδομηθήσεται ἔτι.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Quidquid etiam supellectilis fuerit, congregabis in medio platearum ejus, et cum ipsa civitate succendes, ita ut universa consumas Domino Deo tuo, et sit tumulus sempiternus. Non ædificabitur amplius,
Recogerás todo su botín en medio de su calle, y quemarás con fuego la ciudad, con todo su botín, a Yehová tu Dios. Será un montón para siempre. No se volverá a construir.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y juntarás todo el despojo de ella en medio de su plaza, y consumirás con fuego la ciudad y todo su despojo, todo ello, á Jehová tu Dios: y será un montón para siempre: nunca más se edificará.
And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse instructs that all the plunder of a condemned city be gathered in its public square, then the city and its plunder are to be burned completely as an offering to Yehovah. The site is to remain a permanent ruin, never rebuilt.
Key words
- tikBotz ("you will gather", H6908) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, expressing an action still to unfold, addressed to a single male addressee.
- saraf'Ta ("you will burn", H8313) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain begun by the imperfect verb; grammatically it advances the sequence of commanded actions.
- kaLil ("a whole offering", H3632) — adjective describing totality; applied here to the burning of the city and its plunder as a complete act, without a separate portion withheld.
- tel ("a mound of", H8510) — noun in construct state, "mound of," joined to oLam ("perpetuity", H5769G) to form "a mound of perpetuity," i.e., a permanent heap of ruins.
- tibaNeh ("it will be built", H1129) — niphal imperfect (passive), "it will be built," negated by lo' ("not", H3808), stating the city's future non-reconstruction as a passive event without naming an agent.
What the text says
The verse is built as a chain of verbs describing sequential actions: an imperfect (tikBotz, "you will gather") is followed by two sequential perfects (saraf'Ta, "you will burn"; hayeTah, "it will be") that continue the same command sequence, a common pattern in Biblical Hebrew narrative and legal instruction. The direct object marker 'et (H0853) appears repeatedly before kol-shelaLah ("all its plunder", H3605 + H7998 + H9024), marking the plunder as the object first of gathering, then again as object of burning, emphasizing that the same plunder undergoes both actions.
The phrase kaLil laYehovah 'eloHeikha ("a whole offering to Yehovah your God") uses the adjective kaLil to describe the totality of what is burned — city and plunder alike — as directed la- ("to", H9005) Yehovah, using the preposition of dedication or direction. The final clause layers negation and passive voice: lo' tibaNeh 'od ("it will not be built again"), where the niphal form removes any explicit builder, and the noun phrase tel 'oLam ("mound of perpetuity") functions as a predicate noun describing the resulting permanent state of the site rather than a simple location.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders kaLil ("a whole offering", H3632) with πανδημεὶ ("with all the people" or "totally") and adds ἐναντίον Κυρίου ("before the Lord") rather than the Hebrew's dative-like laYehovah ("to Yehovah"), shifting the sense from dedication "to" Yehovah toward action performed "in the presence of" Yehovah. The LXX also renders tel 'oLam ("mound of perpetuity") as ἀοίκητος εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ("uninhabited forever"), describing the state of the site (uninhabited) rather than its physical form (a mound/heap) as the Hebrew does. The Vulgate's tumulus sempiternus ("everlasting mound") stays closer to the Hebrew's image of a heap.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.