Deuteronomy 13: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Moses gives Israel three cases of being led to worship other gods, and the required response in each. A prophet or dreamer whose sign comes true but who calls for following other gods is not to be listened to, because the LORD is testing whether they love him with all their heart and soul, and is to be put to death for speaking to turn them away from the LORD. A family member or close friend who secretly invites them is to be stoned, with the one who was approached throwing first. If a whole city has been turned aside, they must investigate thoroughly, and only if it is proven true, destroy the city, its people, and its livestock, burning the plunder and leaving the site in ruins forever.

Claim by Claim

1. 13:1
   • If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you
   • The prophet or dreamer gives you a sign or a wonder
2. 13:2
   • The sign or wonder he spoke of comes to pass
   • He says, Let us go after other gods and let us serve them
   • The other gods he names are gods you have not known
3. 13:3
   • You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams
   • The LORD your God is testing you
   • The test is to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul
4. 13:4
   • You shall walk after the LORD your God
   • You shall fear the LORD your God
   • You shall keep his commandments
   • You shall obey his voice
   • You shall serve him
   • You shall cling to him
5. 13:5
   • That prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death
   • He spoke in order to turn you away from the LORD your God
   • The LORD your God brought you out of the land of Egypt
   • The LORD your God redeemed you out of the house of slavery
   • He sought to push you off the way the LORD your God commanded you to walk in
   • You shall remove the evil from your midst
6. 13:6
   • Your brother, the son of your mother, may entice you secretly
   • Your son or your daughter may entice you secretly
   • The wife you embrace may entice you secretly
   • Your friend who is as your own soul may entice you secretly
   • The enticement is, Let us go and serve other gods
   • Those gods are ones neither you nor your fathers have known
7. 13:7
   • The gods meant are the gods of the peoples around you
   • Those peoples may be near you or far from you
   • They may be from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth
8. 13:8
   • You shall not consent to him
   • You shall not listen to him
   • Your eye shall not pity him
   • You shall not spare him
   • You shall not conceal him
9. 13:9
   • You shall surely kill him
   • Your hand shall be the first against him to put him to death
   • Afterward the hand of all the people shall be against him
10. 13:10
    • You shall stone him with stones so that he dies
    • He sought to push you away from the LORD your God
    • The LORD your God brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery
11. 13:11
    • All Israel shall hear of it
    • All Israel shall be afraid
    • They shall not do such a wicked thing among you again
12. 13:12
    • You may hear a report about one of your cities
    • The LORD your God gives you those cities to dwell in
13. 13:13
    • Worthless men have gone out from among you
    • They have led astray the inhabitants of their city
    • They said, Let us go and serve other gods
    • Those gods are ones you have not known
14. 13:14
    • You shall inquire
    • You shall search
    • You shall ask diligently
    • If it is true and the matter is certain that this abomination has been done among you, then act
15. 13:15
    • You shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword
    • You shall devote the city to destruction
    • You shall devote to destruction everything in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword
16. 13:16
    • You shall gather all its spoil into the middle of its open square
    • You shall burn the city and all its spoil completely with fire
    • The burning is a whole offering to the LORD your God
    • The city shall be a ruin heap forever
    • The city shall not be rebuilt
17. 13:17
    • Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand
    • The purpose is that the LORD may turn from the heat of his anger
    • The purpose is that he may show you mercy
    • The purpose is that he may have compassion on you
    • The purpose is that he may multiply you
    • He swore this to your fathers
18. 13:18
    • This follows when you listen to the voice of the LORD your God
    • You are to keep all his commandments which I command you this day
    • You are to do what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

13:1

A "sign or wonder" here means a predicted or marvelous event offered as proof that the speaker really carries a message from God. "Dreamer of dreams" is not mockery: dreams were a recognized channel for divine messages in the ancient world, so a dreamer was claiming the same kind of authority a prophet claimed.

13:2

"Gods you have not known" is an idiom. It does not mean gods whose names are unfamiliar, but gods you have had no dealings with, powers your people have never been bound to or worshiped.

13:3

In Hebrew, "heart" is the seat of thought, will and decision rather than feeling alone, and "soul" translates nephesh, the whole living self, breath, appetite, life. The pair means the entire person, inside and out.

13:4

The word rendered "respect deeply" is the ordinary Hebrew word for fear, used of the awe owed to a king or a god; it covers dread and reverence at once. "Stay closely joined" translates a word meaning to stick or be glued to something, the same word used in Genesis 2:24 of a man joined to his wife.

13:5

"Bought your freedom" translates a word from family and commercial law: to buy something back, or to buy a relative out of slavery. "The place where you were slaves" is literally "house of slaves," a standing description of Egypt. "Remove the evil from among you" is a set formula closing several laws in Deuteronomy; it means removing the offense by removing the offender.

13:6

"Your own brother, your mother's son" specifies a full brother. In a household where a man might have more than one wife, sharing a mother marked the closest possible tie. "The wife you hold close" is literally "the wife of your bosom," an idiom for the wife who sleeps at your side. The list moves through the people whose word would carry the most weight with you.

13:7

The range from near neighbors to the far ends of the earth closes a loophole. It does not matter whether the god is the familiar one worshiped in the next valley or an exotic one from a distant country; the rule covers all of them.

13:8

"Do not look at him with pity" is literally "your eye shall not pity him," a Hebrew idiom for letting the sight of someone soften you out of a duty you are bound to carry out.

13:9

That the accuser's hand strikes first is a rule stated elsewhere in Deuteronomy (17:7) for witnesses in a capital case. The person bringing the charge had to lead the execution, which staked his own standing (and, under other laws, his life) on the charge being true. "Then the hands of all the people" makes the act the community's, not one man's.

13:10

Stoning was a public execution carried out by a crowd rather than an appointed executioner, so responsibility for the death fell on the whole community and no single person bore it alone.

13:11

Israel is the name of these people, all the families together. They came from one man named Jacob, who was also called Israel.

13:13

"Worthless men" translates the Hebrew phrase "sons of Belial." At this stage Belial is not a name but a common noun meaning something like worthlessness or ruin, so the phrase means good-for-nothings or scoundrels. Only in much later Jewish and Christian writings does Belial become the proper name of an evil figure.

13:14

The three verbs (look into, search out, question) form a legal formula demanding a thorough investigation before anything is done, and "the facts are certain" is courtroom language for a charge that has been established. "Hateful thing" translates to'ebah, a strong word for what is detestable or taboo, used especially of foreign worship.

13:15

"Destroy it completely" translates the Hebrew herem: devoting something to God by putting it permanently beyond human use, which in wartime meant killing the inhabitants and livestock and taking nothing for yourself. Elsewhere in Deuteronomy this is commanded against Canaanite cities; here the same treatment is turned on an Israelite one.

13:16

The "public square" is the open space, usually just inside the city gate, where a town's business and legal cases were conducted. "Whole burnt offering" translates a word for a sacrifice burned up entirely, with no portion kept back for the priests or the worshiper. "A pile of ruins forever" renders the Hebrew word for a tell, the artificial mound left where an abandoned city once stood, a familiar feature of the landscape.

13:17

"The things set apart for destruction" is the same word, herem, used in verse 15: goods placed under the ban and forbidden to anyone. "Stick to your hands" is an idiom for keeping or pocketing part of it. "Promised your ancestors with an oath" refers to the sworn promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that their descendants would become numerous.

13:18

"right in the eyes of the LORD" is a Hebrew idiom for what God judges to be right, and it is set deliberately against the phrase used elsewhere for people doing what is "right in his own eyes." "which I command thee this day" fits Deuteronomy's setting: the book presents itself as speeches given by Moses to Israel on the plains of Moab, just before they cross into the land.