Deuteronomy 13:16

And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The Lord commands Israel, through Moses, to execute total destruction on a city that has turned to idolatry, following the directive to kill its inhabitants and livestock.

The words — The verbs תִּקְבֹּץ (tikbotz, "you will gather") and וְ/שָׂרַפְתָּ (vesarafhta, "and you will burn") dictate the physical sequence of collecting the plunder in the open square before consuming it entirely.

The thread — This pattern appears in Joshua 8:28, where Ai is made a permanent heap of ruins, and Joshua 6:24, where the Israelites burn the city while reserving precious metals for the sanctuary.

Why it lands — The text requires complete removal of the plunder so that nothing clings to human hands, a condition for turning God's fierce anger away and securing His promised multiplication of the people.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the Lord thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.

Cross-references

Joshua 8:28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolation to this day.
Jeremiah 49:2 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sound the battle cry against Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a heap of ruins, and its villages will be burned. Then Israel will drive out their dispossessors, says the LORD.
Joshua 6:24 Then the Israelites burned up the city and everything in it. However, they put the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD’s house.
Isaiah 17:1 This is the burden against Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is no longer a city; it has become a heap of ruins.
Isaiah 25:2 Indeed, You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin. The fortress of strangers is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.
Numbers 21:2 So Israel made a vow to the LORD: “If You will deliver this people into our hands, we will devote their cities to destruction.”
Joshua 6:26 At that time Joshua invoked this solemn oath: “Cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho; at the cost of his firstborn he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates.”
Micah 1:6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble in the open field, a planting area for a vineyard. I will pour her stones into the valley and expose her foundations.