Verses 12-18 deal with another possibility, this one involving the attempt to lead astray a whole community (city or town). The punishment will fit the crime.

The section begins with a long sentence (verses 12-15), which must be broken up into smaller sentences. Here it is quite difficult to make verse 12 a complete sentence. The most logical way to begin is the way Good News Translation restructures the sentence: “When you are living in the towns….”

You hear in one of your cities is wrongly placed by Revised Standard Version. One of your cities is the scene of the attempted revolt against God, not the place where it becomes known. New Revised Standard Version has got it right: “If you hear it said about one of your towns…” (see also Revised English Bible). Contemporary English Version has “You may hear a rumor about one of the towns.” However, we may also say “People may tell you about one of the towns.”

One of your cities, which the LORD your God gives you to dwell there: in most languages “towns” or its equivalent will be better than cities (see 1.22). The point is that the Israelites, after conquering the land of Canaan, will be living in cities or towns already built by the Canaanites.

Base fellows is literally “sons of Belial”—worthless people, of no account. A modern equivalent in some dialects of English would be “bums.” Most languages will have a good equivalent to describe such people, as they normally exist in every society.

Have drawn away the inhabitants of the city: as in verse 10, this is apostasy.

‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known: see verses 2, 6.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .