Deuteronomy 13

1 'When there ariseth in your midst a prophet, or a dreamer of a dream, and he hath given unto thee a sign or 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 the sign and the wonder hath come which he hath spoken of unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods (which thou hast not known), and serve 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 thou dost not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or unto that dreamer of the dream, for Jehovah your God is trying you, to know whether ye are loving Jehovah 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 after Jehovah your God ye walk, and Him ye fear, and His commands ye keep, and to His voice ye hearken, and Him ye serve, and to Him ye cleave.

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 'And that prophet, or that dreamer of the dream, is put to death, for he hath spoken apostasy against Jehovah your God (who is bringing you out of the land of Egypt, and hath ransomed you out of a house of servants), to drive you out of the way in which Jehovah thy God hath commanded thee to walk, and thou hast put away the evil thing from thy midst.

“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 'When thy brother — son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend who [is] as thine own soul — doth move thee, in secret, saying, Let us go and serve other gods — (which thou hast not known, thou and thy fathers,

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 of the gods of the peoples who [are] round about you, who are near unto thee, or who are far off from thee, from the end of the earth even unto the 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 thou dost not consent to him, nor hearken unto him, nor doth thine eye have pity on him, nor dost thou spare, nor dost thou cover him over.

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 'But thou dost surely kill him; thy hand is on him, in the first place, to put him to death, and the hand of all the people last;

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 and thou hast stoned him with stones, and he hath died, for he hath sought to drive thee away from Jehovah thy God, who is bringing thee out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of servants;

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 and all Israel do hear and fear, and add not to do like this evil thing in thy midst.

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 'When thou hearest, in one of thy cities which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee to dwell there, [one] saying,

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

13 Men, sons of worthlessness, have gone out of thy midst, and they force away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye 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 and thou hast enquired, and searched, and asked diligently, and lo, truth; the thing is established; this abomination hath been done in thy midst:

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

15 'Thou dost surely smite the inhabitants of that city by the mouth of the sword; devoting it, and all that [is] in it, even its cattle, by the mouth of the sword;

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

16 and all its spoil thou dost gather unto the midst of its broad place, and hast burned with fire the city and all its spoil completely, before Jehovah thy God, and it hath been a heap age-during, it is not built any more;

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 and there doth not cleave to thy hand any of the devoted thing, so that Jehovah doth turn back from the fierceness of His anger, and hath given to thee mercies, and loved thee, and multiplied thee, as He hath sworn to thy 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 when thou dost hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep all his commands which I am commanding thee to-day, to do that which [is] right in the eyes of Jehovah thy 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].”