Deuteronomy 23:9

Summary

The verse gives a conditional instruction: when a military encampment goes out against enemies, the addressee must guard himself from every evil matter. The sentence pairs a conditional clause about departure for war with a subsequent command about self-protection from wrongdoing.

Key words

• ki ("if", H3588A) — introduces the conditional/temporal clause governing the whole verse ("when/if...").
• machaneh ("a camp", H4264) — feminine singular noun; it is the grammatical subject of the verb that follows, describing the going-out of a military camp/expedition rather than a single person.
• teTze ("you will go out", H3318G) — qal imperfect of the root meaning "to go out"; the form is identical for 2nd masculine singular and 3rd feminine singular, which creates ambiguity between "you go out" and "the camp goes out."
• nishmarTa ("you will keep yourself", H8104H) — niphal (reflexive/passive) sequential perfect; unlike an active qal "to guard [something]," the niphal stem gives the sense of guarding oneself.
• davar ra' ("evil thing", H1697I + H7451H) — davar (H1697I) is a broad noun meaning "thing," "matter," or "word"; here modified by the adjective ra' ("evil", H7451H), forming the phrase "any evil matter."

What the text says

The clause opens with the particle ki (H3588A), which sets up a conditional/temporal frame: "when X happens." The verb teTze (H3318G) is a qal imperfect form that is morphologically identical whether the subject is "you" (2ms) or "the camp" (3fs), and since machaneh (H4264) is grammatically feminine singular and stands right after the verb, the noun functions as the subject: "a camp goes out." The prepositional phrase 'al-'oyeveikha ("against your enemies") specifies the direction of this going-out, using the participle 'oyev (H0341) construct with the 2ms suffix.

The second half of the verse shifts to the niphal sequential perfect nishmarTa (H8104H), connected by the vav (H9001) that continues the narrative/legal sequence. The niphal stem marks the action as reflexive — guarding oneself, not an external object. The object of this guarding is introduced by mi- ("from," H9006) plus the construct kol ("every," H3605) governing davar ra' — "every evil matter/thing" (H1697I, H7451H). Because davar can denote "thing," "matter," or "word," the phrase leaves open whether the scope is deeds, matters, or utterances.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew subject of "going out" is the feminine noun machaneh ("camp"), suggesting a military encampment as the one departing. The LXX renders this with ἐξέλθῃς παρεμβαλεῖν ("you go out to encamp"), turning the noun into a purpose-infinitive attached to "you" as subject. The Vulgate renders it as egressus fueris... in pugnam ("you go out... to battle"), replacing the notion of "camp" with "battle" altogether. For davar ra', the LXX uses ῥήματος πονηροῦ ("evil word/matter"), while the Vulgate and the Spanish versions (RV1909, SBLIBRE) use "cosa mala" / "re mala" ("evil thing"), reflecting the broader semantic range of davar (H1697I) between "word" and "thing."