Deuteronomy 10:13

10:13 and to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes that I am giving ¹  you today for your own good?

Deuteronomy 12:19

12:19 Be careful not to overlook the Levites as long as you live in the land.

Deuteronomy 14:27

14:27 As for the Levites in your villages, you must not ignore them, for they have no allotment or inheritance along with you.

Deuteronomy 23:17

Purity in Cultic Personnel

23:17 There must never be a sacred prostitute ²  among the young women ³  of Israel nor a sacred male prostitute ⁴  among the young men ⁵  of Israel.

¹ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation.

² 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).

³ tn Heb “daughters.”

⁴ 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).

⁵ tn Heb “sons.”