Deuteronomy 13:12-1

(13 19 in Heb.). Against a City seduced to Other Gods

Deuteronomy 13:12. in one of thy cities So Hebrew. R. V. concerningis hardly possible (though cp. Psalms 92:12). As the words define not the place where the report has been heard, but the subject of the report, the guilty city itself; therefore either sayinghas been carelessly misplaced and should follow hear(tell) (cp. Joshua 22:11) or more probably the writer has designedly but awkwardly brought up the object of the law from the subordinate to the principal clause so as to make it prominent from the first: cp. Deuteronomy 31:29 (Dillm., Driv.). Translate: if thou shalt hear tell, that, in one of the cities, which … certain base fellows have gone out, etc.

cities or towns; these social forms in Israel are much more frequent in D than tribeswhich under the settled conditions of the people towns gradually displaced; nearly always (exceptions Deuteronomy 19:1; Deuteronomy 20:16 and LXX of Deuteronomy 12:5) in these laws they are units of judiciary: here, Deuteronomy 19:1-13 (on the cities of refuge), Deuteronomy 21:2 ff. (with criminal responsibility for murders committed near them), Deuteronomy 21:19 ff., Deuteronomy 22:15 ff., Deuteronomy 22:24; Deuteronomy 25:8: their representatives being their elders. The other phrase within thy gatesis used of judiciary matters in Deuteronomy 16:18; Deuteronomy 17:2; Deuteronomy 17:8 (otherwise it is reserved for religious and charitable directions: see on Deuteronomy 12:12; Deuteronomy 12:21). But judges and officers are to be chosen according to thy tribes, Deuteronomy 16:18 (for tribessee also Deuteronomy 12:5; Deuteronomy 12:14).

giveth is about to give.

Deuteronomy 13:13. Certain base fellows Hebrew, men, sons of belialusually but doubtfully taken as worthlessness(as if a compound = no use), good-for-nothing fellows, Scot. -ne'er-do-weels." In early writings of the churlish, foul-mouthed, violent, drunken, unchaste, perjurers and abandoned criminals, but also of rebels against authority and religion as here (Judges 19:22; Judges 20:13; 1 Samuel 1:16; 1Sa 2:12; 1 Samuel 10:27; 1 Samuel 25:17; 1Sa 25:25; 2 Samuel 16:7; 2 Samuel 20:1; 1 Kings 21:10; 1 Kings 21:13). In D only here and Deuteronomy 15:9 (of a base wordor thought), and nowhere else in Hexateuch.

are gone out The vb. is used of going forth of set purpose to do something (Judges 9:8; 1 Samuel 23:15) or, along with coming in, of all kinds of business (Deuteronomy 28:6; Deuteronomy 31:2). So here it might just mean deliberately and (of course) in public (opp. secretly, Deuteronomy 13:6); but the addition from the midst of theeconveys the suggestion of apostasyfrom Israel: they went out from us but they were not of us(1 John 2:19).

drawn away Deuteronomy 13:5: draw thee aside(q.v.).

Let us go and worship, etc.] See Deuteronomy 13:2; Deuteronomy 13:6.

Deuteronomy 13:14. inquire See Deuteronomy 11:12; Deuteronomy 12:30; Deuteronomy 17:4; Deuteronomy 17:9; Deuteronomy 19:18; in this sense or a similar darashis used elsewhere in the Pent. only in Leviticus 10:16. Make search, ḥaḳar, investigate, in D only here; elsewhere of exploring a landand of examining a case (Job 29:16). Ask diligently, well, or thoroughly; ask, sha'al, like darash, to make inquest.

and the thing certain or the story established or substantiated (Deuteronomy 17:4), or the case well-founded.

abomination See on Deuteronomy 7:25.

Deuteronomy 13:15. thou shalt surely i.e. the whole nation.

with the edge of Hebrew, mouth of.

destroying it utterly devotingor putting it to the ban or ḥerem. On this see Deuteronomy 2:34; it is the hardest form of the ḥeremwhich is here pronounced upon an apostate city of Israel.

and the cattle, etc.] Not in LXX; probably a later addition to the law and if so illustrative of the ease with which its varied forms and degrees of stringency (see on Deuteronomy 2:34) arose (but see Driver's note here).

Deuteronomy 13:16. street broador open place. So far as they have been unearthed the streets of ancient Canaanite towns were as narrow as those of the villages of modern Palestine. But there was always a broad place, just inside the gate, where local courts and consultations were held.

every whit a whole offering, holocaust. Hebrew kalîlusually synonymous with -olah(see Deuteronomy 12:6), but here used of the ḥerem; so in Judges 20:40 of a city set on fire and its smoke: the whole offering of the city went up to heaven.

an heap or mound. Heb., as Ar., tel(tell), in both languages also applied to the mounds on which living cities stand, their dead selves; the remains of their previous gradual decay or overthrow: all the cities standing on their mounds(Joshua 11:13, etc.).

Deuteronomy 13:17. devoted thing The thing banned, as well as the banning, was called ḥerem. See on Deuteronomy 2:34; Deuteronomy 7:26, and cp. Joshua 6:18.

turn from the fierceness of his anger So Joshua 7:26, after the ḥeremwas fulfilled on Achan.

and shew thee mercy, etc.] Jeremiah 42:12.

multiply thee Again this promise! Deuteronomy 1:10; Deuteronomy 6:3 (q.v.), Deuteronomy 7:13, etc.

Deuteronomy 13:18. The usual condition attached to promises in Deut.: possibly editorial.

right Sam., LXX add and good.