Deuteronomy 23:13

Summary

The verse instructs that a digging tool must be part of a person's equipment, so that when going outside (to relieve oneself), one can dig with it, then turn back and cover the excrement. The sentence forms a chain of sequential actions describing proper camp hygiene practice.

Key words

• yaTed ("a spade", H3489) — feminine singular noun, the object that must be carried; grammatically the subject of the first clause.
• aZenekha ("your equipment", H0240 + H9021) — masculine singular construct noun with pronominal suffix, indicating something belonging to or accompanying the person, rendered by the Greek and Latin as a specific article of clothing.
• chafarTah ("you will dig", H2658) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain begun by the vav-consecutive forms; expresses an action that follows logically/temporally from the prior clause.
• shavTa ("you will turn", H7725G) — qal sequential perfect, marking the moment of turning back before covering.
• khiSita ("you will cover", H3680) — piel (intensive stem) sequential perfect, denoting the completed covering action; the piel stem intensifies the verb's basic meaning "to cover."

What the text says

The verse opens with ve-yaTed tihYeh lekha ("and a spade will be to you"), a possessive construction using the qal imperfect of hayah (H1961) with the preposition le (H9005) plus suffix, meaning "you shall have." This is followed by 'al-aZenekha ("with your equipment", H5921A + H0240), specifying that the spade belongs among one's gear.

The rest of the verse is built as a chain of vav-consecutive (sequential) perfects — ve-haYah, ve-chafarTah, ve-shavTa, ve-khiSita — a common Biblical Hebrew construction for describing a sequence of actions that will habitually occur. Each verb picks up the temporal thread from the previous one: being outside (be-shivteKha chutz, using the infinitive construct of yashav H3427 with preposition be H9003, "when you sit/dwell outside"), digging (chafarTah), turning (shavTa), and covering (khiSita). The final phrase et-tze'aTekha ("your excrement", H6627) uses the construct form with a pronominal suffix, marked by the untranslated direct object marker 'et (H0853).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew aZenekha (H0240, "your equipment/gear") is rendered in the LXX as τῆς ζώνης σου ("your belt/girdle") and in the Vulgate as in balteo ("in the strap/belt"), both narrowing the general term for equipment to a specific article — a belt or strap — rather than gear in general as the Hebrew term suggests. The Hebrew tze'aTekha ("your excrement", H6627) is rendered by the LXX as τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην σου ("your indecency/shame"), a more euphemistic term, while the Vulgate's egesta humo ("the excavated earth") shifts focus to the covering material rather than the excrement itself.