Deuteronomy 13

1 If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and if he gives you a sign or a wonder,

“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].

2 and if the sign or the wonder comes about, of which he spoke to you and said, 'Let us go after other gods, that you have not known, and let us worship them,'

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,

3 do not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams; for Yahweh your God is testing you to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

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.

4 You will walk after Yahweh your God, honor him, keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you will worship him and cling to him.

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.

5 That prophet or that dreamer of dreams will be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and who redeemed you out of the house of bondage. That prophet wants to draw you out of the way in which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk. So put away the evil from among you.

“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.

6 Suppose that your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is to you like your own soul, secretly entices you and says, 'Let us go and worship other gods that you have not known, neither you nor your ancestors—

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.

7 any of the gods of the peoples that are round about you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other end of the earth.'

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.

8 You must not give in to him or listen to him, and you must not permit your eye to pity him, and you must not spare him or conceal him.

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.

9 Instead, you will surely kill him; your hand will be the first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

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.

10 You will stone him to death with stones, because he has tried to draw you away from Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

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.

11 All Israel will hear and fear, and will not continue to do this kind of wickedness among you.

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.

12 If you hear anyone say about one of your cities, that Yahweh your God gives you to live in:

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

13 Some wicked fellows have gone out from among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city and said, 'Let us go and worship other gods that you have not known.'

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.

14 Then you will examine the evidence, make search, and investigate it thoroughly. When you discover that it is true and certain that such an abominable thing has been done among you, then you will take action.

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

15 You will surely attack the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, completely destroy it and all the people who are in it, along with its livestock, with the edge of the sword.

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

16 You will gather all the spoil from it into the middle of its street and will burn the city, as well as all its spoil—for Yahweh your God. The city will be a heap of ruins forever; it must never be built again.

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.

17 None of those things set apart for destruction must stick in your hand. This must be the case, so that Yahweh will turn from the fierceness of his anger, show you mercy, have compassion on you, and make you increase in numbers, as he has sworn to your fathers.

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.

18 He will do this because you are listening to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep all his commandments that I am commanding you today, to do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.

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].”