What Does Deuteronomy 20:15 Mean?
Thus you shall do to all the cities very far off from you, which are not from the cities of these nations.
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
Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations.THE KEY
Here, distance is not background scenery; it draws the line between which rule of war applies.
THE MEANING
The verse addresses its “thou” with a boundary: the preceding rule applies to cities described as very far away and outside the named nations. That rule first offers peace; if the city refuses, the text proceeds to siege, killing the captured city’s males, and taking its women, children, and goods (vv. 10–14). Distance does not soften the violence; it determines which cities receive this rule.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that the preceding war rule applies uniformly to every city: the text explicitly bounds this procedure by distance and by whether a city belongs to the named nations.
THE ROOT
הָרְחֹקֹת
hāreḥōqōt
GROWS FROM
רחק
To be distant; to move or put something far away.
“far off from you” in this verse is hāreḥōqōt. English can make “far off” sound like a simple map description, but רחק (r-ḥ-q) also names the act of putting something at a distance. Here, distance sorts the cities and defines which ones receive the preceding rule, making this spatial word consequential to the violence.
ALSO GROWS
rāḥōq: Far away or remote.
רָחוֹק
This is the adjective at the heart of the verse’s boundary: the rule applies to cities described as very distant.
rāḥaq: To be or become far away.
רָחַק
The root can describe distance as a condition, not just a measurement on a map.
hirḥîq: To place something at a distance or remove it far away.
הִרְחִיק
This form shows the root can also describe making distance; the verse uses distance to set the reach of a command.
THE PATTERN
Scripture marks the reach of a rule by defining who stands inside or outside its stated boundary.
But from the cities of these peoples, which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall keep alive nothing with breath.One judgment shall be yours, as for the sojourner, so for the native, for I am the LORD your God.For as many as have missed the mark without instruction will also lose the way without instruction, and as many as have missed the mark within instruction will be judged through instruction.THE THREAD
And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that you may slaughter to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away; plead for me.“Very far away” uses the same רחק (r-ḥ-q, “be distant” or “put far away”) root as “far off” here. In Exodus, Pharaoh permits departure but tries to limit how far it reaches; in Deuteronomy, distance marks the scope of a rule.
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