Deuteronomy 13

1 If a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you,

And if there arise within thee a prophet, or one who dreams a dream, and he gives thee a sign or a wonder,

2 and if the sign or wonder he has spoken to you comes about, but he says, “Let us follow other gods (which you have not known) and let us worship them,”

and the sign or the wonder come to pass which he spoke to thee, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye know not;

3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

ye shall not hearken to the words of that prophet, or the dreamer of that dream, because the Lord thy God tries you, to know whether ye love your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

4 You are to follow the LORD your God and fear Him. Keep His commandments and listen to His voice; serve Him and hold fast to Him.

Ye shall follow the Lord your God, and fear him, and ye shall hear his voice, and attach yourselves to him.

5 Such a prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he has advocated rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery; he has tried to turn you from the way in which the LORD your God has commanded you to walk. So you must purge the evil from among you.

And that prophet or that dreamer of a dream, shall die; for he has spoken to make thee err from the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, who redeemed thee from bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in: so shalt thou abolish the evil from among you.

6 If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (which neither you nor your fathers have known,

And if thy brother by thy father or mother, or thy son, or daughter, or thy wife in thy bosom, or friend who is equal to thine own soul, entreat thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known,

7 the gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, whether from one end of the earth or the other),

of the gods of the nations that are round about you, who are near thee or at a distance from thee, from one end of the earth to the other;

8 you must not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity, and do not spare him or shield him.

thou shalt not consent to him, neither shalt thou hearken to him; and thine eye shall not spare him, thou shalt feel no regret for him, neither shalt thou at all protect him:

9 Instead, you must surely kill him. Your hand must be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.

thou shalt surely report concerning him, and thy hands shall be upon him among the first to slay him, and the hands of all the people at the last.

10 Stone him to death for trying to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

And they shall stone him with stones, and he shall die, because he sought to draw thee away from the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

11 Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.

And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not again do according to this evil thing among you.

12 If, regarding one of the cities the LORD your God is giving you to inhabit, you hear it said

And if in one of thy cities which the Lord God gives thee to dwell therein, thou shalt hear men saying,

13 that wicked men have arisen from among you and have led the people of their city astray, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (which you have not known),

Evil men have gone out from you, and have caused all the inhabitants of their land to fall away, saying, Let us go and worship other gods, whom ye knew not,

14 then you must inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. And if it is established with certainty that this abomination has been committed among you,

then thou shalt enquire and ask, and search diligently, and behold, [if] the thing is clearly true, and this abomination has taken place among you,

15 you must surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword. Devote to destruction all its people and livestock.

thou shalt utterly destroy all the dwellers in that land with the edge of the sword; ye shall solemnly curse it, and all things in it.

16 And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.

And all its spoils thou shalt gather into its public ways, and thou shalt burn the city with fire, and all its spoils publicly before the Lord thy God; and it shall be uninhabited for ever, it shall not be built again.

17 Nothing devoted to destruction shall cling to your hands, so that the LORD will turn from His fierce anger, grant you mercy, show you compassion, and multiply you as He swore to your fathers,

And there shall nothing of the cursed thing cleave to thy hand, that the Lord may turn from his fierce anger, and shew thee mercy, and pity thee, and multiply thee, as he sware to thy fathers;

18 because you obey the LORD your God, keeping all His commandments I am giving you today and doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

if thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments, all that I charge thee this day, to do that which is good and pleasing before the Lord thy God.