Deuteronomy 13:16

13:16 You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza ¹  and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin ²  forever – it must never be rebuilt again.

Deuteronomy 23:18

23:18 You must never bring the pay of a female prostitute ³  or the wage of a male prostitute ⁴  into the temple of the Lord your God in fulfillment of any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 31:16

31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, ⁵  and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they ⁶  are going. They ⁷  will reject ⁸  me and break my covenant that I have made with them. ⁹ 

---

¹ tn Heb “street.”

² tn Heb “mound”; NAB “a heap of ruins.” The Hebrew word תֵּל (tel) refers to this day to a ruin represented especially by a built-up mound of dirt or debris (cf. Tel Aviv, “mound of grain”).

³ tn Here the Hebrew term זוֹנָה (zonah) refers to a noncultic (i.e., “secular”) female prostitute; see note on the phrase “sacred prostitute” in v. 17.

⁴ tn Heb “of a dog.” This is the common Hebrew term for a noncultic (i.e., “secular”) male prostitute. See note on the phrase “sacred male prostitute” in v. 17.

⁵ tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”

⁶ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.

⁷ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

⁸ tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).

⁹ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.