Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageHere are your orders: every male and every woman who has slept with a man — put them under the sacred ban.'
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GAnd this is what you shall do: every male, and every woman who has known the lying of a man — devote them to destruction.'
KJV
King James VersionAnd this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleThis is what you are to do: Devote to destruction every male, as well as every female who has had relations with a man.”
Footnotes
The verb *takharim* comes from *kherem* — the 'sacred ban' or 'devotion to destruction,' normally invoked in holy war against Canaanite populations (Deut. 20:16–17). Its application here to an Israelite city is the book's darkest theological irony: Israel has become what it was called to drive out. The narrator offers no editorial condemnation, but the use of *kherem* language is itself the indictment. FOG renders it 'devote to destruction,' preserving the technical cultic weight; FOG Message uses 'sacred ban,' making the concept accessible.
