Deuteronomy 13
1 “If there will have arisen in your midst a prophet, or someone who claims that he had seen a dream, and if he will have predicted sign and portent,
And if there arise within you a prophet, or one who dreams a dream, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,
2 and if what he has spoken happens, and he says to you, ‘Let us go and follow strange gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’
and the sign or the wonder come to pass which he spoke to you, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you know not;
3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the Lord your God is testing you, so that it may become clear whether or not you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.
you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or the dreamer of that dream, because the Lord your God tries you, to know whether you love your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
4 Follow the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and listen to his voice. Him shall you serve, and to him shall you cling.
You shall follow the Lord your God, and fear him, and you shall hear his voice, and attach yourselves to him.
5 But that prophet or forger of dreams shall be put to death. For he has spoken so as to turn you away from the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt and who redeemed you from the house of servitude, and so as to cause you to wander from the way that the Lord your God has entrusted to you. And so shall you remove the evil from your midst.
And that prophet or that dreamer of a dream, shall die; for he has spoken to make you err from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, who redeemed you from bondage, to thrust you out of the way which the Lord your God commanded you to walk in: so shall you abolish the evil from amongst you.
6 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your own son or daughter, or your wife who is in your bosom, or your friend, whom you love like your own soul, were willing to persuade you secretly, saying: ‘Let us go, and serve foreign gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known,
And if your brother by your father or mother, or your son, or daughter, or your wife in your bosom, or friend who is equal to your own soul, entreat you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known,
7 gods from any of the surrounding nations, whether these are near or far away, from the beginning even to the end of the earth,
of the gods of the nations that are round about you, who are near you or at a distance from you, from one end of the earth to the other;
8 you should neither agree with him, nor listen to him. And your eye should not spare him so that you take pity on him and conceal him.
you shall not consent to him, neither shall you listen to him; and your eye shall not spare him, you shall feel no regret for him, neither shall you at all protect him:
9 Instead, you shall put him to death promptly. Let your hand be upon him first, and after that, let the hands of all the people be sent forth.
you shall surely report concerning him, and your hands shall be upon him amongst the first to kill him, and the hands of all the people at the last.
10 He shall be killed by being overwhelmed with stones. For he was willing to draw you away from the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, from the house of servitude.
And they shall stone him with stones, and he shall die, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
11 So may all of Israel, upon hearing this, be afraid, so that nothing like this will ever be done again.
And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not again do according to this evil thing amongst you.
12 If, in one of your cities which the Lord your God will give to you as a habitation, you hear someone say:
And if in one of your cities which the Lord God gives you to dwell therein, you shall hear men saying,
13 ‘The sons of Belial have departed from your midst, and they have persuaded the inhabitants of their city, and they have said: “Let us go, and serve strange 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 you knew not,
14 inquire carefully and diligently, seeking the truth of the matter. And if you find that what was said is certain, and that this abomination is a work which has been perpetrated,
then you shall enquire and ask, and search diligently, and behold, [if] the thing is clearly true, and this abomination has taken place amongst you,
15 you shall promptly strike down the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword. And you shall destroy it, along with all the things that are in it, even the flocks.
you shall utterly destroy all the dwellers in that land with the edge of the sword; you shall solemnly curse it, and all things in it.
16 Then all the household goods which are there, you shall gather together in the midst of its streets, and you shall set fire to these, along with the city itself, so that you may consume everything for the Lord your God, and so that it may be an everlasting tomb. It shall no longer be built up.
And all its spoils you shall gather into its public ways, and you shall burn the city with fire, and all its spoils publicly before the Lord your God; and it shall be uninhabited for ever, it shall not be built again.
17 And there shall remain nothing of that anathema in your hand, so that the Lord may turn from the wrath of his fury, and may take pity on you, and may multiply you, just as he swore to your fathers,
And there shall nothing of the cursed thing cleave to your hand, that the Lord may turn from his fierce anger, and show you mercy, and pity you, and multiply you, as he sware to your fathers;
18 when you will heed the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all his precepts, which I am entrusting to you this day, so that you may do what is pleasing in the sight of the Lord your God.”
if you will hear the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments, all that I charge you this day, to do that which is good and pleasing before the Lord your God.
