Deuteronomy 13

1 “Possibly there will be people among you who [say that they] are prophets. They may say that they are able to interpret the meaning of dreams or perform various kinds of miracles [DOU].

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

2 They will say those things in order to induce/persuade you to worship gods that you have never known about before. But even if what they predict happens,

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 do not pay attention to what they say. Yahweh our God will be testing you to find out if you love him with all your inner being.

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 You must conduct your lives as Yahweh our God wants you to, and you must revere him, and do what he tells you to do [MTY], and worship only him, and (be faithful to/have a close relationship with) him.

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

5 “But you must execute anyone who [falsely says that he] is a prophet, or someone who [falsely] says that he can interpret dreams, or who tells you to rebel against Yahweh our God, who rescued your ancestors from being slaves in Egypt. People like that are only wanting to cause you to stop conducting your lives as Yahweh has commanded you to do. Execute them, to get rid of this evil among you.

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 among you.

6 It does not matter if even your brother or your daughter or your wife or some close/dear friend secretly urges you, saying ‘Let’s worship other gods. They are gods which you or your ancestors have never known about.

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 Some of them may encourage you to worship gods that people-groups that live near you worship, or gods that groups who live far away worship.

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 Do not [SYN] do what they suggest. Do not even listen to them. Do not even be merciful to them, and do not keep secret what they have done.

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 Execute them! You [who are their relative] must be the first one to [throw stones at them to] kill them, and then let everyone else [MTY] throw stones at them, too.

you shall surely report concerning him, and your hands shall be upon him among the first to kill him, and the hands of all the people at the last.

10 Kill such people by throwing stones at them, because they are trying to cause you to stop worshiping Yahweh our God, who rescued your ancestors from being slaves in Egypt.

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 When they are executed, all the Israeli people will hear [what happened], and they will become afraid, and none of them will do such an evil thing again.

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

12 “When you are living in one of the towns in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, you may hear

And if in one of your cities which the Lord God gives you to dwell therein, you shall hear men saying,

13 that some worthless people there among you [IDM] are deceiving the people of their town, saying, ‘Let’s go and worship other gods,’ but they are gods that you have never heard about before.

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 Investigate it thoroughly/carefully. If [you find out that] it is true that such a disgraceful thing has happened,

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

15 kill all the people in that town. And kill all their livestock, too. Destroy the town completely.

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 Gather all the possessions that belonged to the people who lived there and pile them up in the city plaza. Then burn the town and everything in it, as though it were an offering to Yahweh that would be completely burned [on the altar]. The ruins/ashes must stay there forever; the town must never be rebuilt.

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 None of you Israelis must take for yourselves [IDM] anything that Yahweh has said must be destroyed. But if you do what I say, Yahweh will stop being angry with you, and he will act mercifully toward you. And he will cause you to have many children/descendants, which is what he promised our ancestors that he would do.

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 Yahweh our God will do all those things if you do what he is telling you to do, and if you obey all the commandments that I am giving to you today and do what Yahweh says is right [for you to do].”

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.