Deuteronomy 17:2

Summary

Deuteronomy 17:2 opens a legal conditional clause describing a hypothetical situation: a man or woman found within one of the towns given by Yehovah is discovered doing what is evil in Yehovah's sight, specifically by transgressing his covenant. The verse sets up the circumstances that the following verses will address with a legal remedy.

Key words

• yimmatze ("he will be found", H4672) — niphal imperfect, a passive/reflexive form indicating the person is "found out" or "discovered," not that they actively present themselves.
• she'areikha ("your gates", H8179H) — masculine plural construct with pronominal suffix; "gates" functions idiomatically for the town or settlement itself, the place of public and legal life.
• noten ("giving", H5414G) — qal participle, expressing an ongoing or imminent action ("is about to give" / "is giving"), describing Yehovah's continuous role as the one granting the land.
• ha-ra' ("the evil", H7451H) — definite adjective functioning as a noun, marked with the article and the direct object marker 'et, making it the specific object of the wrongdoing.
• la'avor ("to transgress", H5674D) — qal infinitive with prefixed preposition la-, expressing purpose or manner: the evil is defined as the act of "transgressing" the covenant.

What the text says

The verse is structured as a conditional protasis introduced by ki ("if", H3588A), setting up a legal scenario rather than a narrative event. The subject — 'ish ("a man", H0376G) 'o ("or", H0176A) 'ishah ("a woman", H0802G) — is delayed until after two locating phrases: "in your midst" (bekirbekha) and "in one of your gates" (be'achad she'areikha), both construct phrases anchoring the offense geographically before naming who commits it. This word order in Hebrew emphasizes place before person.

The relative clause asher ya'aseh et-ha-ra' ("who will do the evil", H0834A + H6213A) uses the direct object marker 'et (H0853) to mark "the evil" as a definite, specific object — not evil in general but a particular act of wrongdoing subsequently defined. The phrase be'einei Yehovah Eloheikha ("in the eyes of Yehovah your God", H5869H) is a idiomatic construction meaning "in the sight/judgment of," placing the evaluation of the act within Yehovah's perspective rather than a human or objective standard. The final infinitive clause la'avor beriyto ("by transgressing his covenant", H5674D + H1285) clarifies that the "evil" in question is specifically defined as covenant transgression, not a separate or additional offense.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders she'areikha ("your gates") as πόλεων ("cities/towns"), interpreting the idiom of "gates" as referring to the towns themselves rather than translating the term literally. The Vulgate's portarum preserves the literal "gates," closer to the Hebrew wording. The LXX also renders la'avor beriyto as an infinitive clause parelthein ten diatheken autou ("to pass beside/transgress his covenant"), structurally paralleling the Hebrew infinitive construction.