Chapter 13
1
Every word that I command you, you shall keep to do it; you shall not add to it, and you shall not diminish from it.
2
If a prophet arises in your midst or a dreamer of a dream, and he gives you a sign or a wonder.
3
And the sign and the wonder come, which he spoke to you, saying, "Let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us serve them."
4
You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to the dreamer of that dream, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
5
You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him. You shall keep his commandments and listen to his voice and serve him and cling to him.
6
And that prophet or that dreamer of the dream shall be put to death, for he spoke a word of apostasy against the LORD your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from a house of slaves, to seduce you from the Way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk, and you shall purge the evil from your midst.
7
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 like your soul secretly says, "Let us go and let us serve gods other than those you have known, you and your fathers,"
8
from the gods of the peoples who are around you, the near ones to you or the far ones from you, from the end of the earth even to the end of the earth.
9
You shall not desire him, and you shall not listen to him, and your eye shall not pity him, and you shall not spare him, and you shall not cover for him.
10
For killing him you shall kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and the hand of all the people last.
11
And you shall stone him with stones, and he shall die, for he sought to seduce you from the LORD your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves.
12
And all Israel will hear and fear and not add to doing this evil thing in your midst.
13
If you hear in one of your cities, which the LORD your God has given you to dwell in, that people are saying:
14
Men, sons of Belial, went out from your midst and incited the inhabitants of their city, saying, "Let us go and serve gods that you have not known."
15
You shall inquire and investigate and ask thoroughly. And behold, it is true and confirmed: the matter has been done—this abomination in your midst.
16
Strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword. You shall devote to destruction you and all that is in it and its livestock with the edge of the sword.
17
You shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its square, and you shall burn the city and all its plunder in the fire as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It shall become an eternal mound. It shall not be rebuilt.
18
And nothing from the ban shall cling to your hand, so that the LORD may turn from the heat of his anger and grant you mercy and have mercy on you and multiply you, just as he swore to your fathers.