Deuteronomy 13

¹ ‘All I command you, you must keep and observe, adding nothing to it, taking nothing away.

² ‘If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and offers to do a sign or a wonder for you,

³ and the sign or wonder comes about; and if he then says to you, “Come, then, let us follow other gods (whom you have not known) and serve them”,

⁴ you are not to listen to the words of that prophet or to the dreams of that dreamer. Yahweh your God is testing you to know if you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul.

⁵ Yahweh your God you shall follow, him you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him shall you serve, to him shall you cling.

⁶ That prophet or that dreamer of dreams must be put to death, for he has preached apostasy from Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and he would have made you turn aside from the way that Yahweh your God marked out for you. You must banish this evil from among you.

⁷ ‘If your brother, the son of your father or of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or the friend with whom you share your life, if one of these secretly tries to entice you, saying. “Come, let us serve other gods”, whom neither you nor your fathers have known,

⁸ gods from among those of the peoples far or near surrounding you, from one end of the earth to the other,

⁹ you must not give way to him, nor listen to him, you must show him no pity, you must not spare him, you must not conceal his guilt.

¹⁰ No, you must kill him; your hand is to be the first raised against him in putting him to death, the hand of all the people will come next.

¹¹ You must stone him to death, for he has tried to lure you away from Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.

¹² All Israel shall hear of it and be afraid and never again commit such wickedness among you.

¹³ ‘If you hear that in one of the towns which Yahweh your God has given you for a home,

¹⁴ there are men, scoundrels from your own stock, who have led fellow citizens astray, saying “Come, let us serve other gods” whom you have not known,

¹⁵ it is your duty to look into the matter, examine it, and inquire most carefully. If it is proved and confirmed that such a hateful thing has taken place among you,

¹⁶ then you must kill all the inhabitants of that town without giving any quarter; you must lay it under ban, the town and all it contains.

¹⁷ You must gather all the wealth of it in the public square, and set fire to the town and all its goods, offering it all to Yahweh your God. It shall be a ruin for all time, never to be built again.

¹⁸ From what is thus banned you must keep nothing back, so that Yahweh may turn from the ferocity of his anger and show you mercy, and have pity on you and increase your numbers as he swore to your fathers;

¹⁹ that is, provided you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, keeping all the commandments of his that I enjoin on you today, and doing what is right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.