U² V¹ g¹ 1-. The instigator. False prophet.
h¹ -1.2. Seduction.
i¹ 3,4. Prohibition.
k¹ 5-. Punishment.
l¹ -5. Evil removed.
V² g² 6-. Instigator. A brother.
h² -6,7. Seduction.
i² 8. Prohibition.
k² 9,10. Punishment.
l² 11. Evil removed.
V³ g³ 12. Instigator. A city.
h³ 13. Seduction.
i³ 14. Inquiry.
k³ 15,16. Destruction.
l³ 17,18. Evil removed.Deuteronomy 13)
1: If there arise among you a prophet (beginning of Moses' 4th address, see 1:1), or a dreamer of dreams,
and gives you a sign or a wonder,
2: And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’, which you have not known, and let us serve them;
3: You shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proves you (i.e. suffers you to be proved. Heb. idiom, which speaks of doing what one allows to be done), to know whether you all love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
4: You all shall walk after the Lord your God, and revere (or love) Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and you all shall serve Him, and cleave to Him.
5: And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because He has spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage (= bondmen, see 5:6. 11 times in this Book. #11 = or denotes disorder: 13:5; 17:7,12; 19:13,19; 21:9,21; 22:21,22,24; 24:7), to thrust you out of the way which the Lord your God commanded you to walk in.
So shall you put the wicked thing away from the midst of you (Heb. ba‘ar, to burn up in order to clear out).
6: If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or you friend, which is as your own soul, entice you secretly (both Hebrew words used here for the first time),
saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’, which you have not known, you, nor your fathers;
7: Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;
8: You shall not consent to him, nor listen to him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him:
9: But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
10: And you shall stone him with stones, that he die; because he has sought to thrust you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondmen.
11: And all Israel shall hear, and revere, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.
12: If you shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord your God has given you to dwell there, saying,
13: ‘Certain men, the sons of Belial (first occ. A word denoting all that is wicked and worthless; hopeless, as to character and destiny. Put by Fig. Metonomy, for the Evil One as the instigator of all uncleanness and heathenism. Cp. 2 Cor. 6:15. evil, naughty, ungodly, wicked), are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’, which you all have not known;
14: Then shall you inquire, and make search, and ask diligently (= thoroughly. occ. only here and 17:4; 19:18); and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;
15: You shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword (Heb. "mouth"), exterminating it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge (mouth) of the sword.
16: And you shall gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn down with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the Lord your God: and it shall be an heap for ever (cp. Josh. 8:28); it shall not be built again.
17: And there shall cleave nothing of the cursed thing to your hand: that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger, and shew you mercy, and have compassion upon you, and multiply you, according as He has sworn to your fathers;
18: When you shall listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.