Chapter 13

Punishing False Prophets. ¹ Do whatever I command you to do. Do not add anything to it, nor ignore anything from it.

² If a prophet or one who foretells the future through dreams arises among you and performs some miraculous sign or wonder ³ and that miraculous sign or wonder occurs, and he says to you, “Let us seek after other gods which we have not previously known and serve them,” ⁴ you are not to listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams.^[a] The Lord, your God, is testing you to see whether you love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and your soul. ⁵ It is the Lord, your God, whom you are to follow. You must fear him and observe his commandments and obey what he tells you and serve him and hold fast to him. ⁶ But that prophet or the one who told the future through dreams is to be put to death for he counseled you to turn away from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. He was driving you away from the way that the Lord, your God, had ordered must be your path. You must purge this evil from your midst.

^7 [b]Even if your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or your wife, or your closest friend secretly tempts you saying, “Let us go and serve other gods whom neither you nor your forefathers have known,” ⁸ the gods of the people living around us, whether they be near or far, wherever they are upon the whole face of the earth, ⁹ you are not to agree to do this with him or even listen to him. You must show him no pity, you should not spare or conceal him. ¹⁰ You must put him to death. You must be the first to lay hands on him to put him to death, and then all of the people after you. ¹¹ Stone him to death! He sought to turn you away from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹² Then all of Israel will hear of this and be filled with fear, and no one will ever do such an evil thing again in your midst.

¹³ If you hear it said that in one of the cities that the Lord, your God, has given you to live in ¹⁴ there are evil men who have come out from among you and who have misled the inhabitants of the city saying, “Let us go and serve other gods whom we have not previously known,” ¹⁵ then you will inquire, and probe, and investigate it thoroughly. If it is clearly proven that this detestable thing has been done among you, ¹⁶ you are to put the inhabitants of that city to the sword and you are to demolish it. Destroy everything in it, even killing the cattle with the edge of the sword. ¹⁷ Gather all of the plunder from it in the middle of its streets, and burn the city and all the spoil in it to the ground. It is to be like a burnt offering to the Lord, your God. It is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt. ¹⁸ You are not to hold on to any of those cursed things, so that the Lord may turn from his fierce anger and show you mercy. He will have compassion on you, and make you numerous, as he promised your fathers, ¹⁹ for you will have heeded the voice of the Lord, your God, and observed all of the commandments that I gave you today and done what the Lord, your God, considered to be right.