Deuteronomy 13

English RSV (Revised Standard Version)

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

2and the sign or wonder which he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’

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

4You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him, and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and cleave to him.

5But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.

6“If your brother, the 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, entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known,

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

8you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him;

9but you shall kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

10You shall stone him to death with stones, 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.

11And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.

12“If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God gives you to dwell there,

13that certain base fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of the city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known,

14then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently; and behold, if it be true and certain that such an abominable thing has been done among you,

15you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, destroying it utterly, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword.

16You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square, and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God; it shall be a heap for ever, it shall not be built again.

17None of the devoted things shall cleave to your hand; that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers,

18if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments which I command you this day, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

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