Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 2:34 
Context2:34 At that time we seized all his cities and put every one of them 1 under divine judgment, 2 including even the women and children; we left no survivors.
Deuteronomy 3:6
Context3:6 We put all of these under divine judgment 3 just as we had done to King Sihon of Heshbon – every occupied city, 4 including women and children.
Deuteronomy 23:17
Context23:17 There must never be a sacred prostitute 5 among the young women 6 of Israel nor a sacred male prostitute 7 among the young men 8 of Israel.
1 tn Heb “every city of men.” This apparently identifies the cities as inhabited.
2 tn Heb “under the ban” (נַחֲרֵם, nakharem). The verb employed is חָרַם (kharam, usually in the Hiphil) and the associated noun is חֵרֶם (kherem). See J. Naudé, NIDOTTE, 2:276-77, and, for a more thorough discussion, Susan Niditch, War in the Hebrew Bible, 28-77.
sn Divine judgment refers to God’s designation of certain persons, places, and things as objects of his special wrath and judgment because, in his omniscience, he knows them to be impure and hopelessly unrepentant.
3 tn Heb “we put them under the ban” (נַחֲרֵם, nakharem). See note at 2:34.
sn The divine curse. See note on this phrase in Deut 2:34.
4 tn Heb “city of men.”
5 tn The Hebrew term translated “sacred prostitute” here (קְדֵשָׁה [qÿdeshah], from קַדֵשׁ [qadesh, “holy”]; cf. NIV “shrine prostitute”; NASB “cult prostitute”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “temple prostitute”) refers to the pagan fertility cults that employed female and male prostitutes in various rituals designed to evoke agricultural and even human fecundity (cf. Gen 38:21-22; 1 Kgs 14:24; 15:12; 22:47; 2 Kgs 23:7; Hos 4:14). The Hebrew term for a regular, noncultic (i.e., “secular”) female prostitute is זוֹנָה (zonah).
6 tn Heb “daughters.”
7 tn The male cultic prostitute was called קָדֵשׁ (qadesh; see note on the phrase “sacred prostitute” earlier in this verse). The colloquial Hebrew term for a “secular” male prostitute (i.e., a sodomite) is the disparaging epithet כֶּלֶב (kelev, “dog”) which occurs in the following verse (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).
8 tn Heb “sons.”
