Deuteronomy 13 - Introduction

1 Inticers to idolatrie,

6 how neere soeuer vnto thee,

9 are to be stoned to death.

12 Idolatrous cities are not to be spared.

1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreames, and giueth thee a signe, or a wonder:

2 And the signe or the wonder come to passe, wherof he spake vnto thee, saying, Let vs go after other gods (which thou hast not knowen) and let vs serue them:

3 Thou shalt not hearken vnto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreames: for the Lord your God prooueth you, to know whether you loue the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soule.

4 Ye shall walke after the Lord your God, and feare him, and keepe his commandements, and obey his voyce, and you shall serue him, and [Note: Deuteronomy 11:20.] cleaue vnto him.

5 And that prophet or that dreamer of dreames shalbe put to death (because hee hath [Note: Hebrew: spoken reuolt against the Lord.] spoken to turne 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, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walke in) So shalt thou put the euill away from the midst of thee.

6 If thy brother, the sonne of thy mother, or thy sonne, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosome, or thy friend, which is as thine owne soule, entise thee secretly, saying, Let vs goe and serue other gods which thou hast not knowen, thou, nor thy fathers:

7 Namely of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh vnto thee, or farre off from thee, from the one end of the earth, euen vnto the other end of the earth:

8 Thou shalt not consent vnto him nor hearken vnto him, neither shall thine eye pitie him, neither shalt thou

[Destroy Idolaters.]

spare, neither shalt thou conceale him.

9 But [Note: Deuteronomy 17:7.] thou shalt surely kill him: Thine hand shall be first vpon him, to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that hee die: because hee hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of [Note: Hebrew: bondmen.] bondage.

11 And [Note: Deuteronomy 17:13.] all Israel shall heare, and feare, and shall doe no more any such wickednesse as this is, among you.

12 If thou shalt heare say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath giuen thee to dwell there, saying,

13 Certaine men, [Note: Or, naughty men.] the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and haue withdrawen the inhabitants of their citie, saying, Let vs goe & serue other gods, which ye haue not knowen:

14 Then shalt thou enquire and make search, and aske diligently: and behold, if it be trueth, and the thing certaine, that such abomination is wrought among you:

15 Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that citie with the edge of the sword, destroying it vtterly, and all that is therein, and the cattell thereof, with the edge of the sword.

16 And thou shalt gather all the spoile of it, into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burne with fire the citie, and all the spoile thereof euery whit, for the Lord thy God: and it shall be an heape for euer, it shall not bee built againe.

17 And there shall cleaue nought of the [Note: Or, deuoted.] cursed thing to thine hand, that the Lord may turne from the fiercenesse of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and haue compassion vpon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworne vnto thy fathers;

18 When thou shalt hearken to the voyce of the Lord thy God, to keepe all his Commaundements which I command thee this day, to doe that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God.