Deuteronomy 20:15

Summary

The verse instructs that the same rule just given should apply to all cities that are very distant from the Israelite, provided those cities do not belong to the nations mentioned in the immediately preceding context. It functions as a boundary clause, distinguishing distant cities from the cities of "these nations" referred to earlier in the chapter.

Key words

• ken ("thus", H3651C) — adverb pointing back to a previously stated instruction, linking this verse to what precedes it.
• ta'aSeh ("you will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, expressing an ongoing or repeated future obligation directed at the addressee.
• 'aRim ("cities", H5892B) — masculine plural noun, but grammatically treated as feminine in this verse (see agreement below).
• rechoKot ("distant", H7350) — feminine plural adjective agreeing with 'aRim, showing that despite its masculine-looking plural form, the noun is treated as feminine here.
• Henah ("they", H2007) — feminine plural personal pronoun functioning as a resumptive/predicate pronoun closing the clause, again agreeing grammatically with 'aRim as feminine.

What the text says

The clause opens with ken ("thus") plus ta'aSeh ("you will do"), a formula that ties this instruction to material stated earlier, rather than introducing a new independent command. The object is kol he'aRim harechoKot mimmekha me'od — "all the cities that are distant from you very" — where the adjective rechoKot ("distant") is feminine plural, matching 'aRim ("cities") as feminine despite its masculine-plural morphological ending (-im). This is confirmed at the end of the verse by Henah ("they"), also feminine plural, which resumes and closes the relative clause.

The relative clause asher lo-me'aRei hagoyim ha'Elleh Henah ("which are not of the cities of these nations, they") uses asher ("which") to introduce a restriction: the rule applies only to cities that do not belong to the group already identified as "these nations." The pronoun Henah at the very end functions almost as a copula-substitute, restating "they [are]" to close the negated identification — a construction that Hebrew allows without an explicit verb "to be."

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the final relative clause differently, adding "quas in possessionem accepturus es" ("which you are about to receive in possession"), a phrase with no equivalent in the Hebrew clause asher lo-me'aRei hagoyim ha'Elleh Henah. The Hebrew simply negates identity with "these nations’ cities" and closes with the pronoun Henah; the Vulgate instead specifies a future possession not stated in the Hebrew wording. The LXX text as given ends at "οὐχὶ ἐκ τῶν πόλεων τῶν ἐθνῶν τούτων" ("not from the cities of these nations") without any visible equivalent to the closing Hebrew pronoun Henah.