< Deuteronomy 13 >
1 “When a prophet or a dreamer of a dream arises in your midst, and he has given a sign or wonder to you,
2 and the sign and the wonder has come to pass, which he has spoken of to you, saying, Let us go after other gods (which you have not known) and serve them,
3 you do not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of the dream, for your God YHWH is trying you to know whether you are loving your God YHWH with all your heart and with all your soul;
4 you walk after your God YHWH, and you fear Him, and you keep His commands, and you listen to His voice, and you serve Him, and you cleave to Him.
5 And that prophet or that dreamer of the dream is put to death, for he has spoken apostasy against your God YHWH (who is bringing you out of the land of Egypt, and has ransomed you out of a house of servants), to drive you out of the way in which your God YHWH has commanded you to walk, and you have put away evil from your midst.
6 When your brother, 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, moves you in secret, 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] around you, who are near to you, or who are far off from you, from the end of the earth even to the [other] end of the earth),
8 you do not consent to him, nor listen to him, nor does your eye have pity on him, nor do you spare, nor do you cover him over.
9 But you surely kill him; your hand is on him in the first place to put him to death, and the hand of all the people last;
10 and you have stoned him with stones and he has died, for he has sought to drive you away from your God YHWH, who is bringing you out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of servants;
11 and all Israel hears and fears, and does not add to do like this evil thing in your midst.
12 When you hear [someone] in one of your cities, which your God YHWH is giving to you to dwell there, saying,
13 Men, sons of worthlessness, have gone out of your midst, and they force away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods (which you have not known),
14 then you have inquired, and searched, and asked diligently, and behold, [if] truth, the thing is established; this abomination has been done in your midst—
15 you surely strike the inhabitants of that city by the mouth of the sword, devoting it and all that [is] in it, even its livestock, by the mouth of the sword.
16 And you gather all its spoil into the midst of its broad place, and have completely burned the city and all its spoil with fire for your God YHWH, and it has been a continuous heap, it is not built anymore;
17 and nothing from any of that [which is] devoted stays in your hand, so that YHWH turns back from the fierceness of His anger, and has given mercies to you, and loved you, and multiplied you, as He has sworn to your fathers,
18 because you listen to the voice of your God YHWH, to keep all his commands which I am commanding you today, to do that which [is] right in the eyes of your God YHWH.”