Deuteronomy 13:1-17 ▼

1 If there arises from among you a prophet or a dreamer of a dream, and he gives to you a sign or a wonder,

2 and the sign or the wonder comes to pass of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods (that you have not known) and let us serve them,”

3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of the dream. For YHWH your? God is testing you?, to know whether you? love YHWH your? God with all your? heart and with all your? soul.

4 After YHWH your? God you? shall walk, and Him you? shall fear, and His commandments you? shall keep, and His voice you? shall obey, and Him you? shall serve, and to Him you? shall hold fast.

5 And that prophet or that dreamer of the dream, he shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from YHWH your? God—who brought you? out from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery—to drive you out of the way that YHWH your God commanded you to walk in it. And you shall put away the evil from among you.

6 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (which you have not known—you and your fathers—

7 of the gods of the peoples who are all around you?, near to you or far off from you, from the end of the earth and to the end of the earth),

8 you shall not consent to him nor listen to him. Nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor conceal him,

9 but you must surely kill him. Your hand shall be the first against him to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward.

10 And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

11 And all Israel shall hear and fear, and not add to do such as this wickedness among you.

12 If you hear someone in one of your cities that YHWH your God gives you to dwell there, one saying,

13 men, the sons of worthlessness, have gone out from among you and enticed those dwelling in their city, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (that you? have not known),

14 then you shall inquire, and search out, and ask diligently, and behold, it is true, the thing is established—this abomination that has been done among you—

15 you must surely strike those dwelling in that city with the mouth of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it, and its livestock, with the mouth of the sword.

16 And all its plunder you shall gather into the middle of the street, and burn with the fire the city and all its plunder completely before YHWH your God. And it shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again.

17 And in your hand you shall not cling to any of the accursed things, so that YHWH will turn from the burning of His anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you as He swore to your fathers,