Deuteronomy 23:16
עִמְּךָ יֵשֵׁב בְּקִרְבְּךָ בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַר בְּאַחַד שְׁעָרֶיךָ בַּטּוֹב לוֹ לֹא תּוֹנֶֽנּוּ׃ ס
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
עִמְּךָ֞ יֵשֵׁ֣ב בְּקִרְבְּךָ֗ בַּמָּק֧וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֛ר בְּאַחַ֥ד שְׁעָרֶ֖יךָ בַּטּ֣וֹב ל֑וֹ לֹ֖א תּוֹנֶֽנּוּ׃ ס
μετὰ σοῦ κατοικήσει, ἐν ὑμῖν· κατοικήσει οὗ του κύρου αὐτοῦ ἐὰν ἀρέση αὐτῷ, οὐ θλίψεις αὐτόν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Habitabit tecum in loco, qui ei placuerit, et in una urbium tuarum requiescet: ne contristes eum.
Él habitará con ustedes, en medio de ustedes, en el lugar que elija dentro de una de sus puertas, donde mejor le parezca. No lo oprimirás.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
More contigo, en medio de ti, en el lugar que escogiere en alguna de tus ciudades, donde bien le estuviere: no le harás fuerza.
Let him live among you wherever he chooses, in the town of his pleasing. Do not oppress him.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse permits a person to remain and dwell freely among the community, choosing whatever town ("gate") within the territory pleases him. It closes with a direct prohibition: the addressee (singular "you") must not oppress or mistreat this person.
Key words
yeShev ("let him remain", H3427) — qal imperfect, third person masculine singular. The imperfect here carries permissive/jussive force: "he shall dwell" as an allowance rather than a simple future report.
kirbecha ("your midst", H7130G) — masculine singular construct with second-person suffix, forming "in the midst of you," reinforcing the idea of residing within the community rather than at its edge.
yivchar ("he will choose", H0977) — qal imperfect, third person masculine singular, governed by the relative particle asher ("which/that", H0834A). This creates a relative clause: "the place that he will choose," granting the subject freedom of selection.
sha'areicha ("your gates", H8179H) — masculine plural construct with suffix. "Gates" functions as a metonym for towns or settlements (gates being the entry points of walled cities), so "one of your gates" means "one of your towns."
toNennu ("you will maltreat him", H3238) — hiphil imperfect, second person masculine singular, with third-person object suffix. The hiphil (causative) stem indicates causing distress or oppression, not merely feeling it; the negation lo (H3808) makes this an absolute prohibition.
What the text says
The sentence divides into two grammatical units. The first unit stacks several prepositional and relative clauses to describe unrestricted residence: "with you," "in your midst," "in the place that he will choose," "in one of your gates," "in the good to him" (batov lo, H2896A + H9005/H9033), an idiom meaning "wherever seems best to him." Each phrase narrows the general instruction ("in the place") to a broader freedom ("one of your gates," "the good to him"), so the grammar builds toward emphasizing personal choice rather than assignment to a fixed location.
The second unit is a short independent clause: lo toNennu, "you shall not oppress him." The shift from third-person subject (the one dwelling) to second-person singular addressee marks a change in grammatical focus — the verse moves from describing the newcomer's freedom to commanding the community's (or individual's) restraint toward him.
Differences between versions
The LXX repeats κατοικήσει ("he will dwell") twice and renders "with you" as ἐν ὑμῖν ("among you," plural), while the Hebrew imecha (H5973A + suffix) is singular. The LXX also simplifies "in one of your gates" to οὗ ("where"), dropping the gate/town imagery present in sha'areicha (H8179H). The Vulgate similarly abandons "gates," using "in una urbium tuarum" ("in one of your cities") and adds the verb "requiescet" ("he will rest"), which has no direct lexical counterpart in the Hebrew verbs yeshev or yivchar.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.