Deuteronomy — Chapter 13

aThis verse is labeled as 12.32 in some editions, and chapter 13 starts with the next verse. Be careful to observe only that which I enjoin upon you: neither add to it nor take away from it.

If there appears among you a prophet or a dream-diviner, who gives you a sign or a portent,

saying, “Let us follow and worship another god”—whom you have not experiencedbwhom you have not experienced See note at 11.28.—even if the sign or portent named to you comes true,

do not heed the words of that prophet or that dream-diviner. For the ETERNAL your God is testing you to see whether you really love the ETERNAL your God with all your heart and soul.

The ETERNAL your God is the One whom you should follow, whom you should revere, whose commandments you should observe, whose orders you should heed, whom you should worship, and to whom you should hold fast.

As for that prophet or dream-diviner, they shall be put to death for having urged disloyalty to the ETERNAL your God—who freed you from the land of Egypt and who redeemed you from the house of bondage—to make you stray from the path that the ETERNAL your God commanded you to follow. Thus you will sweep out evil from your midst.

If your brother, your own mother’s son,cyour own mother’s son Samaritan reads, “the son of your father or the son of your mother.” or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your closest frienddclosest friend Lit. “friend who is as yourself.” entices you in secret, saying, “Come let us worship other gods”—whom neither you nor your ancestors have experiencedewhom neither you nor your ancestors have experienced See note at 11.28.—

from among the gods of the peoples around you, either near to you or distant, anywhere from one end of the earth to the other:

do not assent or give heed to any of them. Show no pity or compassion, and do not cover up the matter;

but take that person’s life. Let your hand be the first to put them to death, followed by the hand of the rest of the people.

Stone them to death for having sought to make you stray from the ETERNAL your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Thus all Israel will hear and be afraid, and such evil things will not be done again in your midst.

If you hear it said, of one of the towns that the ETERNAL your God is giving you to dwell in,

that some scoundrels from among you have gone and subverted the inhabitants of their town, saying, “Come let us worship other gods”—whom you have not experienced—

you shall investigate and inquire and interrogate thoroughly. If it is true, the fact is established—that abhorrent thing was perpetrated in your midst—

put the inhabitants of that town to the sword and put its cattle to the sword. Doom it and all that is in it to destruction:

gather all its spoil into the open square, and burn the town and all its spoil as a holocaust to the ETERNAL your God. And it shall remain an everlasting ruin, never to be rebuilt.

Let nothing that has been doomed stick to your hand, in order that GOD may turn from a blazing anger and show you compassion, and in compassion increase you as promised on oath to your fathers—

for you will be heeding the ETERNAL your God, obeying all the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, doing what is right in the sight of the ETERNAL your God.