What Does Deuteronomy 13:17 Mean?
And nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand, so that the LORD may turn from the burning of his anger, and give you compassion, and be compassionate to you, and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers;THE KEY
The verse links what must not cling to your hand with the LORD’s turning from anger toward compassion and increase.
THE MEANING
Nothing of what is devoted to destruction is to remain attached to your hand; the verse ties its complete removal to the LORD turning from burning anger and showing mercy. It holds the violence of that boundary beside compassion and multiplication, speaking to you now with both fully in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that mercy must leave everything untouched: here compassion follows the complete removal of what is under the ban.
THE ROOT
יִדְבַּק
yidbaq
GROWS FROM
דבק
to cling, adhere, or stick fast
“cling” in this verse is yidbaq. The word pictures something attached closely enough to remain on the hand: the prohibition concerns what is still clinging, not merely what once passed nearby. The same root can describe a bond of union, so the verse’s force turns on what is attached.
ALSO GROWS
dāḇaq: to cling or join closely
דָּבַק
The same verb describes a man cleaving to his wife, showing that the root names attachment itself; what is attached changes its force.
dāḇaqtî: I have held fast or clung
דָּבַקְתִּי
This form describes an ongoing hold, echoing the verse’s image of something continuing to cling to a hand.
הַחֵרֶם
haḥērem
GROWS FROM
חרם
to place under a ban; devote to destruction
“devoted thing” in this verse is haḥērem. The Hebrew term names something placed under a ban, not merely something disliked. The verse’s demanded separation carries a violent edge, and the appeal to mercy that follows does not erase it.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērem: something placed under the ban
חֵרֶם
This names what the verse refuses to let remain attached to the hand.
haḥărēm: to place under the ban for destruction
הַחֲרֵם
The related verb makes the severity carried by “the cursed thing” explicit.
רַחֲמִים
raḥamim
GROWS FROM
רחם
to show compassion; this word family also names the womb
“give compassion” in this verse is raḥamim. The verse repeats this root: the LORD gives compassion and then is described as having compassion on you. The related word for womb gives that compassion a sheltering, life-bearing texture, standing here beside the verse’s severe judgment.
ALSO GROWS
raḥamim: compassion; the noun used in the verse
רַחֲמִים
The verse names compassion as something the LORD gives after the thing under the ban is removed.
reḥem: the womb
רֶחֶם
The shared root gives compassion a life-bearing, sheltering texture without softening the violence that precedes it.
THE PATTERN
Scripture often places a severing or turning away beside restoration and increased life.
As far as the east is from the west, so far he puts our rebellions from us.Turn around, then, and turn back, so that your shortcomings may be wiped away, and the times of breathing again may come from the face of the LORD.Every branch in me that bears no fruit, he lifts away. And every branch that bears, he cleanses it, that it may bear more fruit.THE THREAD
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother, and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.The same verb, דָּבַק (dāḇaq, cling or cleave), describes a bond meant to hold fast and an object that must not remain in the hand. The root itself does not condemn attachment; what matters is what the hand is joined to.
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