Deuteronomy 23:18

Summary

Deuteronomy 23:18 prohibits bringing the etnan ("hire", H0868) of a zonah ("prostitute", H2181) or the mechir ("price", H4242) of a kelev ("dog", H3611) into the house of Yehovah as payment for any vow. The verse closes with a causal clause stating that both are to'avah ("abomination", H8441) to Yehovah, followed by an emphatic phrase underlining that the prohibition covers both items equally.

Key words

• tavi' ("you will bring", H0935P) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, second person masculine: an ongoing prohibition against causing something to enter a place, not a simple action of arriving.
• etnan ("hire of", H0868) — masculine singular construct, tying the noun to zonah that follows; denotes payment received for prostitution.
• zonah ("a prostitute", H2181) — qal participle feminine singular, literally "the one who does [prostitution]," describing an ongoing activity rather than a fixed noun/title.
• kelev ("a dog", H3611) — masculine singular absolute noun, the literal Hebrew term for the animal, paired grammatically with mechir ("price of", H4242).
• to'avat ("abomination of", H8441) — feminine singular construct, linking the noun to the divine name that follows and framing the reason for the prohibition.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the negation lo' (H3808) plus the hiphil imperfect tavi', forming a durative prohibition: "you shall not [ever] bring." Its object consists of two parallel construct chains — etnan zonah ("hire of a prostitute") and mechir kelev ("price of a dog") — joined by the conjunction u- (H9002, "and"). Both phrases function as grammatically equivalent objects of the same verb, entering "the house of Yehovah your God" (beit Yehovah 'Eloheikha), for the purpose expressed by le-khol-neder ("for any vow", H5088). The causal particle ki (H3588A) introduces the rationale: both items are to'avat Yehovah 'Eloheikha, "abomination of Yehovah your God." The sentence ends with gam-sheneihem ("also the two of them," H1571 + H8147 + H9028), a summarizing dual pronoun that explicitly confirms the prohibition applies jointly to both nouns named earlier, not merely to one.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew kelev (H3611), the LXX kynos, and the Vulgate canis all render the term literally as "dog." The BSB translates this same word as "whether female or male" (referring to a male prostitute), and the SBLIBRE Spanish version renders it as "un prostituto" ("a male prostitute"). These are interpretive renderings not present as a literal gloss in the Hebrew, LXX, or Vulgate text, which retain the animal term "dog" without further explanation.