Deuteronomy 18:12

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh: and because of these abominations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וּבִגְלַל֙

gâlâl

H1558

“and · in/at · on account of of”

Conjunction + Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct

Appears 10× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 12:13

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H1556

TWOT: 352

on account of, for the sake of

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

14: words
11: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is וּבִגְלַל֙ on account of H1558 — appearing just 10 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וּבִגְלַל֙ on account of H1558 occurs in 10 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
8 nouns
2 pronouns
1 conjunction
1 particle

Verb forms

עֹ֣שֵׂה Qal · Participle Active
מוֹרִ֥ישׁ Hiphil · Participle Active

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

תוֹעֲבַ֥ת abomination H8441 ×2
יְהוָ֖ה LORD H3068 ×2
אֵ֑לֶּה these H428 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 25 words from the Hebrew and 29 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 14 Hebrew tokens and 20 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Deuteronomy 18:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Leviticus 18:24 "'Don't defile yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations which I am casting out before you were defiled.
Deuteronomy 9:4 Don't speak in your heart, after that Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land; whereas for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh does drive them out from before you.
Leviticus 18:27 (for all these abominations have the men of the land done, that were before you, and the land became defiled);

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Deuteronomy 18:12 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

כִּֽי תוֹעֲבַ֥ת יְהוָ֖ה כָּל עֹ֣שֵׂה אֵ֑לֶּה וּבִגְלַל֙ הַתּוֹעֵבֹ֣ת הָאֵ֔לֶּה יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ מוֹרִ֥ישׁ אוֹתָ֖ם מִפָּנֶֽיךָ

For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh: and because of these abominations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 18:12 Septuagint · lemma form

εἰμί γάρ βδέλυγμα κύριος ὁ θεός σύ πᾶς ποιέω οὗτος ἕνεκεν γάρ ὁ βδέλυγμα οὗτος κύριος ἐκὀλεθρεύω αὐτός ἀπό σύ

For every one that does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God; for because of these abominations the Lord will destroy them from before your face.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

אֲרֵי מְרָחָק יְיָ כָּל דְיַעְבֵּד אִלֵין וּבְדִיל תּוֹעֲבָתָא הָאִלֵין יְיָ אֱלָהָךְ מְתָרַךְ יָתְהוֹן מִקֳדָמָךְ

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

אֲרוּם מְרַחֵק קֳדָם יְיָ כָּל עֲבֵיד אִלֵין וּמְטוֹל תּוֹעֵיבְתָּא הָאִילֵין יְיָ אֱלָהָכוֹן מְתָרֵיכֵיהוֹן מִן קֳדָמֵיכוֹן

For every one who doeth these is an abomination before the Lord; and because of these abominations the Lord driveth them out before you.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Deuteronomy 18:12 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

12. abomination] See Deu_18:9.

unto the Lord] Sam. LXX add thy God, and LXX B omits this in next clause.

doth drive them out] Heb. is to dispossess them, see on Deu_9:5; cp. Deu_4:38.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord,.... Not that do all these things, but whoever does any of them, as Jarchi notes; all such persons that use such unlawful methods, or any of them, to gain knowledge; and likewise all those that consult them, and make use of them; and especially it must be very abominable in the people of Israel to encourage such persons and practices, who had the knowledge of the true God, and him to consult on all occasions; had his law and testimony to attend unto as the rule of their conduct, and his prophets to advise with in matters of difficulty; see Isa 8:20.

and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee; as well as other sins mentioned in Lev 18:24 and, as before observed from Cicero, all nations have been addicted to the arts of divination here condemned.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

The people of the land which thou art going to possess, mentioned above, Deu 18:9.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

12. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord — An abomination, or a detestable thing to Jehovah, is every one who doeth these things; for the classes of diviners and magicians enumerated were in the service of the heathen gods, and ministered in impure rites.

And because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee — The nations of Canaan had become so corrupt through their degrading forms of worship that Jehovah is about to dispossess them for the sake of his covenant people.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

All who practiced such arts were an abomination unto the Lord, and his people are forbidden to have anything to do with them. They are connected here with the Moloch-worship, because of the intimate relation between idolatry and the use of magical arts; and Moloch-worship is specially mentioned, probably because it was the form of idolatry with which the Israelites were most likely to come in contact, both where they then were and also in Canaan; not, as Keil suggests, because that form "was more intimately connected with soothsaying and magic than any other description of idolatry an assertion for which there is no evidence.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

driving them out

Here "them" refers to the people already living in Canaan.

For these nations

Here "nations" stands for the people groups that live in Canaan. AT: "For these people groups" (See: Metonymy)

these nations that you will dispossess

"these nations whose land you will take"

translationWords

God

cast out

blameless

nation

sorcerer

divination

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

כל אלה עשה [FOR] ALL THAT DO THESE THINGS [ARE AN ABOMINATION UNTO THE LORD] — it does not say, “he who does all these things”, but “all who do these things” — who do even only one of them (Sifrei Devarim 173:1; cf. Makkot 24a).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Deuteronomy, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 14 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is gâlâl (“on account of”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “on account of” (gâlâl) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Genesis 12:13, which shares the word «on account of», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “abomination” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«עֹ֣שֵׂה» is a Qal Participle Active verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 14 Hebrew ↔ 20 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 13 words in this verse.
“abomination” occurs 2× in this single verse.
11 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 14 words in this verse.