Deuteronomy 13

In the future, there could be people in your community who say that they are prophets. They may say that they are able to interpret the meaning of dreams or perform various kinds of miracles.

They will say those things to convince you to worship gods that you have never known about before. But even if what they predict happens,

then do not pay attention to what they say. This is because God our God will observe how you behave to find out if you love him with all your inner being. \*

You must conduct your lives as God our God wants you to. You must honor him, obey him, do what he tells you to do, and be faithful to him.

But you must execute anyone who tells you to disobey God our God. This includes anyone who says he is a prophet, or anyone who says that he can interpret dreams. This is because God himself rescued your families from being slaves in Egypt. Those people want to convince you to disobey what God has told you to do. Execute them to make sure no one in your community does those kinds of evil acts. \*

Your brother, son, daughter, wife, or some close friend might privately urge you to disobey. They might urge you to worship other gods that you and your ancestors never knew about before.

They might urge you to worship gods that nearby or faraway peoples worship. \*

If any of them do that, then do not do what they suggest. Do not even listen to them. Do not act mercifully toward them, and do not keep secret what they have done.

Execute them! Be the first one to {throw stones} at them to kill them. Then, everyone else must {throw stones at them}, too. \*

Kill such people by throwing stones at them. This is because they tell you to disobey God our God, who rescued your ancestors from being slaves in Egypt.

When you have executed that person, all the Israelite people will hear what happened. They will become afraid, and none of them will do such an evil thing again. \*

When you are living in one of the towns in the land that God our God is giving to you, you may hear

that some worthless people among you are deceiving the people of their town. They might urge you to worship other gods.

Examine the facts about it thoroughly. Suppose you find out that it is true that such a disgraceful thing has happened. \*

Then kill all the people in that town and kill all their livestock, too. Destroy the town completely.

Gather all the possessions that belonged to the people who lived there and pile them up in the city plaza. Then burn the town and everything in it. It will be like a burnt offering to God. The ruins must stay there forever. People must never rebuild that town. \*

You must not take for yourselves anything that God has said you must destroy. If you do what I say, God will stop being angry with you, and he will act mercifully toward you. He will cause you to have many children, which is what he promised our ancestors that he would do.

God our God will do all those things if you do what he is telling you to do, obey all the commandments that I am giving to you today, and do what God says is right for you to do. \*