The devoted things: these are the things that are under the ban, that is, that are dedicated to God and so must be destroyed completely (see verse 15; 2.34).

None … shall cleave to your hand: you are not to save any of those objects that must be destroyed. All of this is to be done in order to placate Yahweh’s furious anger. Good News Translation has a good model: “Do not keep for yourselves anything that was condemned to destruction.” However, in languages that do not use the passive voice, we may express this as “Do not keep any of the things that belong to Yahweh. You must destroy them.”

Show you mercy, and have compassion on you: these have very similar meanings, “be kind and merciful,” “be forgiving and compassionate.” Here New Revised Standard Version (also Revised English Bible) is more literal: “show you compassion, and in his compassion [multiply you].”

Multiply you: see 7.13.

An alternative translation model combining verses 16 and 17 may be:

• Gather all the possessions of the people who lived there, and pile them up in the open flat area near the town gate. Don’t keep anything that belongs to Yahweh. You must burn all these things and the whole town. Don’t ever rebuild the town. Then Yahweh will not be angry with you any more. He will be merciful to you and will cause you to prosper by giving you many children, as he promised your ancestors.

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 .